


Retrospective Days

by TheBeingOfEverything



Category: YuYu Hakusho
Genre: Either way just good old-fashioned bro-mance up in hurr, Enjoy the feels, Gen, Hiei was not cut out for this, I'm changeable like that, Possible Yusuke/Hiei, Possibly not, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2017-12-12 12:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 58,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/811394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeingOfEverything/pseuds/TheBeingOfEverything
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Botan, I swear I've never met this guy before!", "Then what's he doing making out with your corpse!"- In retrospect, Kurama may have been the better choice for a time travel accident to happen to, but you know the yyh gang are never that lucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Moving this over from ff.net though I've been procrastinating on updates so nothing new because the writer's block is killing me right now D:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok! So this here's my first fic, (that I've actually had the urge to write out and complete at least), oh happy day! lol Meaning that I have absolutely no idea how to work this thingamajig so forgive me for any retarded formatting. Any suggestions or beta readers would be appreciated greatly :D also, any reviews and critiques would be awesome and a supreme ego booster lol
> 
> Right, so Info/Warnings: This may or may not be a Yusuke/Hiei pairing or just kept at them being total bros and kicking some serious ass. 'Cus god know we need some more interaction-and fics!- between these two... and I haven't decided if I know how to write them romantically yet lol
> 
> Disclaimer: Though I really don't think I actually need this I haven't gone over the policies on this site and really don't want to get this taken off for copywrite issues. So I don't own this crap- 'cept maybe the idea, 'cus I haven't actually seen a yyh time travel fic on here... whatever.
> 
> Without Further-a-do, On With The Fic!

Yusuke was about five minutes from going into a full-blown panic mode. Though to be fair, he had a pretty good reason for being a little anxious at the moment. It was this particular night in which he would be resurrected with the... ugh... Kiss of Life, (Botan kept snickering at him about that and if she didn't stop he was gonna' be pissed!), and neither Kuwabara nor Keiko had shown up. Hellooo, still a ghost here! Move your asses people, I don't have all day!

...Ok, so it was only six o'clock and he had time. That didn't change the fact that no one had responded to the dreams he had sent them and Yusuke was at a loss as to how he would gain their attention.

"Alright, Botan, you got any bright ideas? 'Cus it looks like nobody's coming to my rescue," Yusuke said sarcastically, anxiety tingeing his voice despite his best attempt at indifference.

She gave him an exasperated look but he noticed that she, too, was slightly worried, "honestly, Yusuke, we still have time," she paused, glancing down at his body from where they floated up above his house, "your body isn't even halfway glowing yet! Have some patience, will you?"

Yusuke grumbled and went back to staring listlessly at the surrounding scenery. It had been interesting to have a birds-eye-view when he had first died and become a ghost, but after awhile he was really itching to get back on solid ground. That was why he noticed before Botan when a black blur darted out of nowhere and came to a stop right outside the door to his apartment complex.

"Um, Botan? Are you seeing this?" Yusuke nudged her and, when she failed to glance his way, put his impressive lungs to work, "hey I'm talking to you! Some guy just popped up in front of my freakin' door and last I checked, people normally can't do that!" That got her attention.

"Oh my," she gasped as her eyes alighted on the small form of the person who, up until this point, seemed content to just watch the house, "but you shouldn't have to meet creatures like this until much later!"

That gave Yusuke pause, "...alright, first of all, what the hell do you mean by 'creatures'? Second, what the hell do you mean by 'not supposed to meet until later'?" These questions were growled out by a seriously irate Yusuke who had been really, really hoping that his life wouldn't get any more complicated- or weirder, I mean seriously, ghosts? And lets not forget the existence of Spirit World and Grim Reapers who wore pink. He was way to old for these kinds of fairy tales.

Botan 'eep'd' and looked down sheepishly at her suddenly fidgeting fingers, "oh Koenma's going to kill me for thi-" she was cut off by the sound of a door opening and closing. The creature had gone inside the house.

"Shiiiittt!" Yusuke's eyes went wide as he swore. He had no idea what type of creature this could be but he definitely didn't want it anywhere near his defenseless body. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be anything he could do.

Man being a ghost sucks! He thought frantically.

The door to Yusuke's room was unlocked- and the lock on the front door hadn't lasted long as a deterrent- so the guy let himself in and walked up to his bed. He wore an indifferent expression on his face but Yusuke noticed it slowly transform into something slightly pissed off, though it wasn't the 'rip-out-your-spine-and-beat-you-to-death-with-it' kind of pissy-ness, more like the, 'I-really-don't-want-to-be-doing-this-and-I-hope-to-God-no-one-sees-what-I'm-about-to-do' kind. Well that doesn't make much sense...

Botan and Yusuke had moved in closer to the room's window and so were treated to the sudden and completely unexpected move by the stranger.

Yusuke stared at the scene, then turned to stare at Botan. They both turned back to the scene in front of them.

'...Holy shit...'

"Oh... oh my God. Botan I swear to you that I have never met this guy before in my life!" he stammered out. The panic was setting in again.

"Then what's he doing making out with your corpse?" Botan screeched back at him, equally as panicked. There was nothing about this in the Ferry Girl Guidebook!

But Yusuke couldn't answer that, though it's doubtful if he'd even be able to at this point.

He was back in his body; the kiss had done its work.


	2. Chapter 2

Hiei pulled back from the kiss and dragged his arm across his mouth; a frown severely etched onto his face.

'If the detective doesn't wake after that I'm going to find his human female and make her do it,' he thought ruefully. His scowl turned into a smirk when he thought of bringing in the fool, Kuwabara, instead. Wouldn't that have some interesting repercussions!

His musings were cut short, however, when Yusuke bolted upright and glanced around in a rather vexed manner before spotting him and opening his mouth, probably to give a most impressive rant.

Hiei cut him off, "before you go and open your big mouth-" wait he already did that... whatever, I doubt he'll notice that little incongruity, "-try to remember that I just saved your life."

Hiei sneered down at the detective, "in fact, I think you owe me now."

Yusuke regained his wits and got up angrily, "the hell I do!"

...And began his rant, "who are you, what was that, why are you here...!" It was all very interesting and Hiei was left wondering when he'd run out of breath.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to test that experiment. No doubt denizens of Spirit World would be paying the house a visit soon and he'd rather not be around when that happened. 'At least, not until I've regained my strength and powers...'

"Sorry to cut your rant short, Yusuke," Hiei started, "but lets just say that now isn't the time for questions and that you and I will be meeting again very soon." With that he was gone, leaving Yusuke with many unanswered questions and an extreme sense of confusion. Never one to enjoy being in such a state, Yusuke was quick to get over it.

Then he got pissed, glaring irritably at the empty space his 'savior' had vacated, "who does that guy think he is, huh? I'll show him grateful!"

Yusuke stomped around his room, mockingly repeating Hiei's words out loud to himself and generally cursing the other's existence. It didn't take him long to calm down, though. The sheer sensation of being alive again was making it difficult to stay angry at anything.

Looking around, he noticed that nothing much had changed since he'd been gone, except that the place was much cleaner- probably thanks to Keiko since his mother couldn't be bothered to do it herself. All of his things were neatly stored around the room as if they had somehow known he'd be brought back to life. Yusuke smiled at the thought that he hadn't been thrown aside like trash and forgotten after his death like he'd originally thought he'd be.

'I guess... maybe it's not so bad to be alive after-all.'

It then occurred to him that he'd had a companion before being sucked back into his body, "oh thanks', Botan! leavin' me with alone with the guy who can teleport and probably wants to kill me, yeah, really awesome!" Yusuke huffed when he got no response and realized he was shouting at himself, "oh well. Hey I wonder what I've missed the past couple of days."

'Kuwabara could probably do with a good beat down right about now. I bet he misses getting his face punched in and I bet the pavement is starting to miss him, too!' With that charming thought Yusuke was up and out the door, barely taking time to make himself decent and do a little happy dance. He was back in his own body and no weird midget with a bad attitude was going to ruin his good mood!

Said midget with a bad attitude was currently racing through the city towards the outskirts where he could vanish and plan his next move.

He found himself in a dense forest, (and it wasn't Genkai's forest either, not even Hiei was foolish enough to tempt that old woman. She could probably kill him just by sneezing at this point!), and darted up a tree before alighting on a branch and making himself comfortable.

"Well that went well," he muttered contemptuously, eyes taking in the surrounding forest that was so familiar to him with slightly feigned disinterest. It had been awhile since he'd been here, back in the Human World...

Hiei forced his train of thought back to the matter at hand. Now was not the time for reminiscing.

He could have handled that better, he realized, but his impatient nature wouldn't let him wait for the string of events that had led up to his and the detective's first meeting. Hiei also couldn't trust that Yusuke's human girl would have been able to get to him in time.

He gave a soft snort at the thought, narrowing his eyes briefly. From what he understood, she had barely been able to make it with only seconds to spare and Hiei wouldn't allow for something so precarious to decide Yusuke's fate. He had seen Yusuke die once; losing him a second time was entirely unacceptable.

He was left to decide what would happen now and pondered the exact events that had led up to this hiccup in time. 'Perhaps I should learn to listen to Kurama more often...'

The mission was a simple one and really not even an actual mission. Koenma had needed help finding an artifact that had been stolen some odd number of years ago but whose disappearance the demigod hadn't noticed until now.

And Yusuke had been very bored.

Somehow he had convinced both Kurama and Hiei to come along with him- "come'on guys it'll be just like old times, you know you missed me!"- though Kuwabara had told him that on 'no uncertain terms' would he be risking his neck for one of Yusuke's whims, he had finals in a week, darn'it!

So the merry band of friends made their way cheerfully through an ancient forest.

...Well, maybe not so cheerfully. In fact, Hiei and Yusuke were on their fifth argument since they'd begun the trek leaving a weary Kurama to play the mediator. Needless-to-say, he wasn't very successful.

"So, Short-Stuff, did'ya hear? Kuwabara an' Yukina are daaating," Yusuke said in a singsong voice, he snickered when he noticed Hiei gritting his teeth in agitation.

"Detective, continue that train of thought and it'll be the last thing you ever do!" Hiei snarled at the toushin.

"Come now, you two, is it so wise to argue before a possible fight?" Kurama attempted in the small hope that his companions would focus a bit more. It was, of course, utterly in vain. 'Well, at least I tried...'

"Tch! Tell that to the fool who got us into this mess!" Hiei growled out, shooting a dark look at the 'team leader'.

"Hey now, I thought Kuwabara was 'The Fool'," Yusuke said brightly, seemingly ignorant of the violent looks Hiei was sending him.

"Yes, and you're starting to remind me of him," Hiei shot back.

Any further talk was abruptly cut off and the forest was suddenly completely silent. The group looked around themselves with trepidation, though Hiei and Yusuke shared eager smirks, all hints of enmity towards each other forgotten. This was the part they'd been waiting for.

They were utterly surrounded on all sides by a rather large group of bandits who seemed to think that numbers would somehow win them the battle. There didn't appear to be a leader among them, or if there was they were hardly any more interesting than their men. The former Tantei resigned themselves to a rather boring and easy fight.

Kurama and Hiei glanced at each other and quickly split apart in opposite directions from the formation- darting into the foray while Yusuke waited calmly in the center of the chaos.

To make the fight more exciting, Hiei forewent using his demonic energy and relied on his speed and sword skills to take down the enemy. They died quick, messy deaths but the blood never even hit him before he was on to the next vict- er, challenger, yes that's right, challenger...

Kurama, on the other hand, was bringing the surrounding plants to life and using them against his opponents while gracefully dodging and evading their feeble attacks. He felt they should have thought before facing a master plant manipulator in a forest of all things. It had been quite a long time since he'd had so much fun, the Human World really couldn't compare. He let loose a delighted laugh and continued to fight.

Yusuke always enjoyed a good brawl and although he preferred to face more challenging opponents he was determined to be entertained all the same. The demons who weren't busy with Kurama and Hiei immediately charged him and Yusuke responded with a powered up shotgun. With a large grin on his face he let it fly at them, taking out half their numbers with direct hits and vaporizing the few unlucky ones who had been too close to the energy and were too weak to withstand it. He smirked confidently and jumped into the crowd, beginning the unholy beat-down.

All three of their group met up in the middle of the battlefield surrounded by the still warm bodies of their opponents. It had been a quick fight.

"Well that was disappointing, I hardly even broke a sweat!" Yusuke said with a laugh.

"The fact that you broke a sweat at all is pathetic. These weaklings shouldn't have been that much of a challenge for you," Hiei taunted, still in a good mood after the battle. Arguing with Yusuke was just an added bonus for a job well done.

Kurama sighed, though really, he should be used to their constant bickering by now, "Well, these seem to be the bandits Koenma was talking about," he paused, "I don't suppose either of you thought to keep one of them alive for questioning?" At their mumbled confirmations that, no neither had thought beyond the thrill of the fight, Kurama sighed again.

"Well then, it's a good thing that I had that foresight, isn't it?" Smile looking suspiciously like a smirk, he glanced back to where he'd tangled up a couple of the demons in energy leeching vines. Yusuke cracked his knuckles loudly and Hiei's grin was definitely on the evil side. They walked over to begin the interrogation. Oh but Hiei loved those interrogations.

Unfortunately, the demons cracked long before Hiei could really get going and they began the short walk to the bandit's camp, leaving Kurama's plants to make fertilizer out of the bodies. They held no pity for them, after all this was the Demon World, only the strong survived.

Things went downhill from there on out, but really, it was all Koenma's fault for not informing them in the first place what the effects of the artifact were.

They found it lodged in a tree, ("well that's a stupid place to put it", "shut up, detective!"), and Yusuke hung back with Kurama while they made a call to Koenma, informing him of their success.

Hiei's impatience got the better of him.

Again.

He stalked up to the tree and reached out for the stupid thing, blandly noting that it was in the form of a bracelet. It was heavy looking and shaped more like a manacle than any jewelry he'd ever seen. He noticed that it seemed to be inlaid with darkened gold symbols in a strange language he couldn't decipher. Hiei shrugged and yanked it out of its niche in the tree.

Two things happened when he reached out and grabbed it: Yusuke and Kurama shouted out in alarm and the bracelet firmly latched itself onto Hiei's wrist.

He felt a disorientating sensation, as if his body had been flipped upside-down. 'I am going to kill that toddler!' He thought as his body gave another lurch.

Hiei managed to focus his spinning vision on the other's faces and felt the serrated edges of fear dig at his insides. The look Yusuke was giving him was the same one he'd worn when Toguro had 'killed' Kuwabara, and Kurama's unbreakable calmness had come undone.

The last thing he heard was Yusuke calling his name in fear and desperation.

"Hiei!"

Everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Hiei went from unconsciousness to consciousness instantly. One moment all was quiet in his mind; then he opened his eyes.

And immediately closed them again. The light, though it came from the setting sun, was so bright it seemed to pierce through his eyes and into his brain. The normally stoic demon was forced to clench his teeth to avoid crying out from the shock of the severe agony lancing through his head.

When Hiei felt confident enough that he could face the sun without blinding himself, he slowly inched his eyes open. The sight of regular, Human World trees alerted him to the fact that he was no longer in the Demon World. 'What... the hell...?'

Hiei then made the mistake of trying to get up and the queasiness from before returned with a vengeance. He fell back to the ground and rolled over before gracelessly spewing his guts all over the innocent greenery that'd had the misfortune of growing there.

'Lets try that again,' Hiei thought, once the dizzy spell had faded; he didn't trust himself to speak just yet. This time he sat up with much more care and, when no more attacks came, dragged himself over to a tree and leaned heavily against it. Hiei pulled a leg up to his chest, letting the other one splay out in front of him, and rested with his arms wrapped around the upright leg. While he was waiting for his body to stop feeling so weak he would take stock of his situation.

So far he knew that not only was he in the Human world, (and how that had happened while he had been unconscious he would really like to know), but his two companions were gone as well. It made him nervous to not know where the Fox and Detective had vanished to. Had they been transported like he had? If that was true, then where were they now and why couldn't he sense their energy?

It was then that he noticed the artifact they'd been searching for clasped securely around his wrist.

"What the hell is this?" Hiei ground out, tugging futilely against the strange accessory. It was to no avail, the thing was stuck, and stuck well.

Hiei gave a silent snarl in frustration before two thoughts suddenly occurred to him, 'a little trinket should not be able to stop me!' and 'at only half my strength I should still have enough power to tear apart mountains, something like this...!'

That was when it hit him. Hiei swiftly stood, ignoring any lingering pain, and focused on his demon energy, trying to sense how much of it he had.

'...No, it's not possible...!'

His energy levels only came to about the same as when he had first fought with Yusuke! That was barely strong enough to break a rock, let alone an entire mountain!

Hiei started panicking then. His pupils narrowed to mere pinpricks and his breathing began to speed up until he was almost hyperventilating. He collapsed to the ground and pushed himself up against the tree hard enough to leave scratches and bruises on his back. Eyes, clouded in shock, stared unseeing at the forest floor and his fingers dug into the ground besides him, frozen but for the intermittent spasms wracking his body. The calmness of the forest and happy- shrill- chirping of the birds nearby only served to further his panicked state and he ended up biting clean through his lower lip with one of his needle-sharp canines. His eyes shot open- when had he closed them?

It was that sudden pain and the sharp, metallic taste from his blood that brought him around.

'I have to get control of myself; obviously this is some kind of effect from that damn bracelet! Panicking won't solve anything.' That said it still took a while to convince his body to listen to him. Hiei slowly unclenched his tense muscles and pulled himself up using the tree for support, grimacing at the blood staining his teeth and face.

He spat out red-tinged saliva, scowling at his situation. Hiei knew the next logical step would be to find the others and get the toddler to remove the manacle from around his wrist.

He'd decided on calling the thing a manacle from now on, as no jewelry piece was supposed to be this annoying.

He glanced around the area to orientate his position and was mildly shocked to find that this was one of the forests surrounding Yusuke's city. In fact, it was one that he regularly used to frequent when he was chained to the Human World as a spirit detective.

'Good, now to find the Fox and Detective and get them to tell me exactly what happened...'

Hiei blinked, steadied himself, and took off in a blur towards the homes of his former teammates.

Although he was darting through the city at break-neck speeds, Hiei was still able to discern some worrying discrepancies in the placement of buildings that should have been lining the streets, but weren't. After spending so much time haunting the area, Hiei knew it like the back of his hand. He chalked it up to not having been back to visit in awhile but could have sworn that some of the shops that had gone out of business were back up and running again.

He shook his head and continued on, a minute sense of unease pervading the back of his mind. He shoved it down absently, not quite ready to accept the idea that was forming.

Though there wasn't any reason to suspect either of his two missing companions to be in Human World, the demon knew that Kurama kept an extra Communication Mirror around. He stopped at a selection of upper-class apartment buildings near the outskirts of the city; Kurama's newest living space since the fox had moved out of his mother's home. Hiei frowned, the building looked to be newly built and completely empty inside. He shook his head. Perhaps Kurama had moved to a different place recently and simply hadn't informed anyone.

He knew that wasn't the case. The fox always told the others of their group where he would be residing, just incase Kuwabara pushed for another one of his foolish monthly meetings- or some other impractical reason Hiei couldn't fathom. And, of course, moving didn't explain the signs of a newly built apartment instead of just one under renovation.

Hiei didn't really want to use the Jagan when he was so weakened but the situation called for it. He tugged at the ward around his forehead and directed the eye towards searching for any sign of Kurama or Yusuke's energies.

'There!' Kurama's energy signature was the nearest so Hiei took off, following the faint trail he'd detected.

A deeper frown tugged at his lips when he realized the direction he was going in. The energy trail seemed to be leading back towards Kurama's old home. But it didn't make sense that the he would be visiting his mother when they had just been on a mission. By all rights, the fox should be back in Demon World.

When Hiei came nearer to Kurama's house he began to really worry. Something was definitely off, the energy of the area around places Kurama decided to call 'home' was unique to those who knew what to look for, and Hiei was one of those people.

What he was sensing now, though it was difficult with his significantly decreased power level, was a certain lack of energy from the spirit fox that usually seeped into the plants he kept for various reasons.

Ah, there it was. But it was so faint that it could only be coming from a couple of plants, as opposed to the multitude that Kurama usually had. Hiei cautiously moved around the house but kept his distance, the unease from before reemerging and blaring warnings in his head.

The Jagan didn't pick up on anything more strange than Kurama's muted energy. The house was empty otherwise and the surrounding area was quiet, nothing other than the sounds of a neighborhood settling down for the night registered to his strained senses.

Hiei leapt closer, deciding to forgo his concerns. He approached the small energy signal in one of the upper bedrooms half-curious, half-dreading what he'd find.

And there was Kurama... but not...

He gave a shape intake of breath, feet stumbling to a halt on the pavement and hands grasping at air for some sense of stability. The person in the window was indeed Kurama, but it was a much, much weaker Kurama who sat working at his desk, and he was wearing his old uniform again. The same one he hadn't worn for years since he finished that annoying human schooling of his!

'...What's going on?'

Hiei took a deep, shuddering breath and practically bolted towards Yusuke's house. This had to be a mistake!

But what he found at Yusuke's was no different than what had been at Kurama's. Although at this point Hiei was beginning to come to terms with his situation and he knew he had to look at this calmly; or at least, more calmly than he had been thus far. Besides, Hiei felt that he had filled his quota of emotional outbursts for the next couple of years at least. He turned his focus back to his current situation, as impossible as it seemed.

...He'd thought time travel to be a myth, but then, all myths had some basis in reality...

Yusuke was meandering around his house and appeared to be preparing for sleep. Hiei watched him stumble and bump into a desk corner. Cursing and sputtering, the detective managed to save the toothbrush he'd been using from falling when he'd opened his mouth before continuing on his way to a back room.

The energy levels Yusuke was giving off confirmed Hiei's fears and he glared at the source of his troubles, (a.k.a. the bracelet), though Kurama might say it was his own fault for doing first and asking questions later. He mentally sighed and looked back to the house where Yusuke had emerged again briefly, probably forgetting to do something or other.

The detective looked... wrong.

Hiei couldn't place it at first, but then it hit him as he took in the way Yusuke held himself and moved around the small house in a completely ungraceful manner that all those years of fighting and training under Genkai had given him.

Though perhaps ungraceful wasn't the word Hiei was looking for. It was more like Yusuke was... unaware of everything surrounding him as he had been in the future, even if unconscious of that knowledge.

But, Hiei could tell one thing for certain. Yusuke was far younger than he'd ever been before meeting Hiei, having not died yet nor experienced any of the things that would shape him into the person he was going to become.

'You're going to have a lot of maturing to do before we can meet again, Yusuke.' Hiei smirked, the detective would be fun to watch, if nothing else. He had only ever heard the stories surrounding Yusuke's death so it would be... interesting to see first-hand what had happened leading up to Yusuke's initiation into life as a spirit detective.

Hiei couldn't reveal himself to Yusuke just yet. He would wait until the other knew about the other planes of existence outside of his little boxed up Human World before making his move.

Until then, Hiei would just go and introduce himself to Kurama; it was about that time, anyways. He grinned, took one last glance at the innocent- well, comparatively innocent- boy, sleeping blissfully unaware of the path he would soon be taking, and then headed out to pay the fox a visit.


	4. Chapter 4

Yusuke was feeling very conflicted at the moment.

His week back amongst the living had been everything he'd ever hoped for and his abnormally good mood had scared a lot of people, (it was especially amusing because a lot of those same people had thought he was a ghost. They had been at his funeral, after all).

...And the fact that he wouldn't have to wait another fifty years before another shot at resurrection became possible was always a definite plus in his books.

It was the way in which he'd been resurrected that had him confused and not just a little irritated. That irritation had become paranoia by Friday.

The demon's- because that's what Botan had told him the thing was classified as and wasn't that perfect nightmare fuel- words kept repeating themselves over and over in his head...

"...Lets just say that now isn't the time for questions and that you and I will be meeting again very soon..."

Since then a number of things had changed in Yusuke's life. For one he could now access his spirit energy. He had really enjoyed knocking down Iwamoto that day- the bastard had, had it coming to him for a long time now- and he'd been turned into Spirit World's newest detective. He still didn't quite know what he was supposed to do as detective but figured he'd learn along the way.

Which brought him to today.

Yusuke wouldn't have gone to school that day but Keiko had all but broken into his house early in the morning and forced him out the door. She hadn't taken his excuse of having a crazy stalker out to get him as the truth and any protests he'd had were shut down in the face of her cold, brutal logic.

Currently, Yusuke was attempting to make his way home without seeming like he was running from something. It didn't help that he was checking over his shoulder every five seconds and flinching at every black shadow that passed through his peripherals.

He wasn't exactly scared, per se, more like the suspense was killing him. Would the demon attack him on the streets, in his house? Did the thing even want to attack him? It hadn't seemed like that was his main goal, but from what Botan had told him most demons were utterly ruthless and bloodthirsty. The actions and words still didn't add up and Yusuke was left feeling as if there were a lot of pieces to the puzzle missing.

That, and Yusuke was still reeling from the kiss and kept wiping at his mouth whenever the image entered his head. He really hoped Keiko never, ever found out about that little incident!

"Man, this is so stupid," Yusuke griped loudly, scaring a few birds out from the nearby trees, "if the guy wanted to meet me so bad he brought me back from the dead, then he should stop playin' around and quit hiding!"

"Had I known you felt so strongly about it I would have approached you sooner," said the demon that walked casually at Yusuke's side as if he'd been there the entire time.

"Gah!"

A couple of innocent garbage cans were knocked over in Yusuke's haste to get away.

"Where the hell did you come from?" The indignant and high-pitched question merely had the guy smirking at Yusuke. The provoking look on his face broke through any fear Yusuke had been feeling and it turned into anger rather quickly. He was somewhat predictable like that, but don't ever tell it to him.

He growled and a fierce expression overtook his features, "alright, demon, either you explain who the hell you are or I rearrange your face, your choice. Personally? I'm good with both options."

"Since you asked so nicely," the demon said snidely, "my name is Hiei. As for the other questions you no doubt have, perhaps we should take the rest of this conversation somewhere... quieter?"

"Riiiight, so you can kill me and drain my blood?" Yusuke was ever so practiced at asking stupid questions.

"Tch, hardly. Although I do know of some species of demon that enjoy eating humans, I am not one of them." Hiei turned, baring his pointed fangs in a slightly evil grin at Yusuke, "but if you're so curious I'm sure I could arrange a meeting..."

Ah, Hiei. Always the eloquent charmer, isn't he?

"No thanks, I'm good!" Yusuke shivered; man this guy could be scary.

"Then lead on, oh great spirit detective. I have ever so much to tell you." Hiei looked expectantly up at Yusuke, watching him with impossibly red eyes as he waited for his decision.

"Fine. We'll go to my place, then. Since you already seem to know where that is for some reason." Yusuke looked shiftily at his new- and he used this term loosely- companion, "try not to kill any small, fluffy animals on the way, ok? I got a friend who'll be pretty pissed at you for that stuff."

"I'll try to contain myself but I can't make any promises," Hiei said, and walked back to Yusuke's side, "though I doubt Kuwabara is any threat to me at the moment."

"Ok, I'm not even gonna' ask how you know that," Yusuke grumbled, "probably knew cus' you were stalking me..."

"Shut up and walk, Yusuke."

Though the walk had been brief, especially at the pace Yusuke was setting, the tension had built rapidly in the lack of conversation. Well, technically it was only Yusuke who was getting increasingly agitated. Hiei seemed completely at ease with the edgy vibes surrounding the two.

Yusuke stomped up to the door of the house with a poorly disguised expression of irritation on his face and fished out a key from one of his pant pockets. He unlocked the door but paused before allowing Hiei to enter.

"If my mom's home we'll just head to my roo-" Yusuke started...

... Only to be cut off, "She's not." Hiei snickered inwardly at Yusuke's obvious frustration.

"Seriously, how are you doing that? Are you a friggin' mind reader and able to teleport?"

'Just how many abilities can this guy possibly have? ' Yusuke thought wearily.

"It's not teleportation, you asinine fool. I simply run faster than your pathetic, human, eyes can follow," Hiei said clearly, as if speaking to a particularly slow-witted child. He doubted Yusuke even knew what the word 'asinine' meant which made it all the more fun to use when speaking to him, at least, Hiei thought so.

"And as for the mind reading... well, that's one way of putting it," when Hiei said this something glowed purple, almost in the shape of an eye, under the white cloth on his forehead. Yusuke no longer wanted to know.

"Whatever! Come on, we're here now so you can start talkin'." He stared Hiei down until the demon was past the doorway, then pulled the door shut and followed him into the kitchen. 'And of course he knows where my kitchen is, God this is pissing me off!'

Hiei leaned comfortably back against the kitchen counter as if he owned the place and waited for Yusuke to come to a stop a couple feet away.

"What I'm about to tell you is complicated and rather time consuming so if you could save your questions for afterwards this will be much less painful for the both of us," Hiei said, tone serious despite its sardonic wording.

"...Go on," Yusuke nodded, turning his full attention on Hiei.

"Hn, right. So I can assume Koenma told you about the three worlds?" at Yusuke's affirmation he continued, "then you know that the toddler has a barrier in place so that demons can't get to human world and destroy it, right?" Yusuke nodded again, not really getting where Hiei was going with this line of questioning.

"What you didn't know is that it can only block out the very strongest of demons, all the weaker ones are free to come and go as they please. It also didn't used to always be there," he stalled and waited for Yusuke to process this information, though he threw him one more mini-revelation, "why do you think they made you spirit detective, or how I was able to reach you here?"

"What? But that's insane!" Yusuke looked stricken at this knowledge. How was the Human World even still standing? Why hadn't the demons destroyed it when they'd had the chance?

Hiei ignored his outburst, "that isn't the important part of what I'm trying to tell you, just a little history lesson so you're not completely lost."

Yusuke narrowed his eyes at the barb but quickly calmed back down. Let nobody say that the detective didn't have some modicum of patience.

"This part gets a bit sappy but pay attention because I won't repeat myself," a mildly disgusted look crossed Hiei's face for a moment before he continued, "generations ago, before the barrier was up, a demon fell in love with a human woman and they conceived a child together, though the woman died in childbirth. Their child was brought to the human world and passed on its genes to the present day."

An unholy gleam entered Hiei's eyes.

Yusuke got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He already knew so soon after meeting Hiei that, that look never meant anything good.

"Do you want to know what happened to that child?" The question was stated in such a falsely saccharine-sweet way that shivers were sent racing up Yusuke's spine and he broke out into a cold sweat.

'You know, I'm not really sure I actually do want to know! Really, it's ok, you don't havta' tell me!' Was what Yusuke wanted to say, but his mouth wouldn't work for some reason.

Hiei interpreted his expression correctly and decided to answer anyways. Almost gleefully, he responded to Yusuke's unvoiced questions, "It's called the Atavism of the Mazoku, detective, and it only happens every forty-plus generations! A child is born with the potential to access all of the demonic abilities of their ancestor!"

"You. Are. That. Child, Yusuke!"

'...I really should've stayed in bed today...'


	5. Chapter 5

Hiei stared at Yusuke, wondering how he'd react to the knowledge of his demon ancestry.

Yusuke stared at Hiei, hoping he was joking about the whole demon thing... and yet already knowing that Hiei didn't joke.

'...Ah, hell...'

"You're, um. You're serious about that?" Yusuke said in a rather dumfounded, (read: pathetic), voice.

Hiei raised an eyebrow, "do I look like I'm joking, detective?" In fact, he didn't.

'...Well, shit...'

Yusuke proceeded to faint.

He woke to Hiei holding a fireball way to close to his face and looking far too amused about it for Yusuke's liking.

"Holy crap!" he yelped and scuttled hastily backwards, "what the hell, Hiei!"

"Hn, it was either that or a face full of water," The demon said, dissipating the fireball and gesturing absently towards the kitchen sink, "I thought you would prefer not having to change your clothes."

Yusuke's eye twitched in annoyance, "tch, yeah. Thanks for being so thoughtful. So, what, you can make fireballs now, too?"

"Among other things, yes," Hiei looked smug for a moment, enjoying holding something over Yusuke, but quickly sobered up, "I believe you should have some questions for me now."

"Yeah, here's one for starters," Yusuke said, getting up and looking Hiei squarely in the eyes, "how do you even know all this stuff?"

"I thought you would ask that first," Hiei replied calmly, resuming his casual position against the counter, "it's simple, really. Your ancestor is still alive."

Yusuke looked mildly stunned but, after so many surprises in one day, this latest shocker wasn't having as profound a reaction from him, "what does that have to do with anything?"

"Currently, your ancestral father is on a ridiculous hunger strike that has lasted centuries. Soon, he will die." Hiei looked peeved, "It was caused by your ancestral mother's death and now he refuses to eat."

"Whoa, centuries? How is that even possible- wait, I don't want to know, ignore that question," Yusuke said, waving his hand at Hiei, hoping he'd get the hint this time and not answer anyways.

He looked puzzled then, "why would he stop eating because of her, though? I mean, what could he have eaten that was so bad?"

Hiei got that dangerous look in his eyes again and Yusuke immediately regretted saying anything.

"Do you remember the conversation we had earlier today? The one about introducing you to the human-eating demons?" A sly smile slid its way onto Hiei's face and his eyes became hooded, "lets just say that I would not take you to see your father right now, he might not be able to contain himself."

Yusuke shuddered, eyes going wide and mind scrambling to understand just what he was hearing, "y-you can't mean... my dad, eats people?" He looked nauseated, like he might be sick any second.

The Yusuke of the future hadn't been so disturbed by this information, Hiei knew. This younger version hadn't been through nearly enough life and death situations involving the demonic to build up his tolerance. Hiei felt even farther removed from the familiar, and regret at being sent so far into the past. He ignored this feeling and shoved the brief thought deep into the recesses of his mind.

Hiei felt a twinge of guilt at having caused such distress in Yusuke, "I told you he was on a hunger strike, didn't I?" Yusuke looked up, "he hasn't eaten a human in hundreds of years because he cares to much for them." There, that was better. The detective no longer looked like someone had killed his puppy.

"Right... right, that's good," Yusuke said, relieved, "but why does it matter? Who is this guy?"

Hiei sighed, hating having to talk so much and wishing Kurama were there; he was so much better at these kinds of things. He began to explain the details of the three lords of the Demon World and their constant stalemate that would soon be ending with the death of, Raizen, Yusuke's ancestral father.

Yusuke looked suitably impressed, "wow, so my ancestor is head honcho over there, huh?"

"Not quite. He would be if he would actually eat something every once in awhile," Hiei scoffed, "it's not as if he needs to eat humans, regular food would suffice."

Yusuke nodded, then held up a hand in a 'hold-on' motion, "ok, let me see if I've got you so far; my dad's one of the kings of Demon World, he met my mom, fell in love, then stopped eating so now he's gonna' die and the other two are gonna' duke it out with each other when he's gone for control over the entire demon realm?" at Hiei's nod he continued, "but what I don't get is what this has to do with me, I mean, how do you even know that I'm his kid? It's been forty-freakin'-generations, it could be anyone!"

"It's simple," Hiei said, "in answer to your second question, well, Koenma's royal library is rather easy to break into. He keeps excellent files on the three lords," He smirked, "I just had to trace the lineage to its last remaining survivor: you."

The fact that Hiei had never actually broken into Spirit World's libraries would just remain his little secret, there really was no other way he could explain it to Yusuke. He highly doubted time travel would go over very well.

"What? You broke into Spirit World?" Yusuke gaped at Hiei, "why?"

Hiei sighed and shifted slightly, crossing his arms, "the why to that is also the answer to your first question." His eyes then practically speared Yusuke with their intensity, "what do you think will happen when Raizen falls? Right now the stalemate is keeping a relative peace in Demon World, but it is precarious. With his death could come total chaos, and that is good for no one."

Yusuke looked shaken, having barely started accepting that he could be a demon of all things, but stubbornly pressed on, "so, again. What does this have to do with me?"

"Raizen will need an heir. One who shares his beliefs," Hiei stated darkly, eyes narrowing at what he was saying, "because you are human raised it's obvious that you qualify. His followers will come for you, and then they will take you to Demon World, whether you can fight or not."

"Crap, are you serious?" Yusuke asked sharply, "What the hell can I do?"

"That is why I am here, Yusuke." Hiei walked up to him, "normally I would not be one to interfere with such matters, but the situation is dire and could not be left up to fate."

He continued, "if you want to have a choice in your destiny you will need training and experience before you can face your father."

"And you're going to be the one to train me?" Yusuke said accusingly, slightly suspicious of Hiei's motives.

"Hn, I would enjoy sparring with you, however, now that you're a spirit detective Koenma will be sending you on missions. These will help you gain the necessary skills that may save your life later on." Hiei would tell him about Genkai later, or rather, Koenma would when he sent Yusuke to take down Rando.

"Accept my help, or don't. I don't really care," and Hiei found himself accidentally repeating the same words he'd said to Yusuke, right before that fateful battle with Sensui, "just know that the day will come when you-"

Yusuke cut him off, unknowingly mirroring the same conversation Hiei was, with an uncannily similar expression on his face, "hey, don't worry about it, I could use all the help I can get."

Yusuke's words from the future echoed in Hiei's head...

"...Really, thanks Hiei, I always needed that kick in the ass..."

He grinned at Hiei's stunned face, "and hey, it might be pretty cool to spar with a demon. I'd like to see what other tricks you can pull."

Hiei smiled then, only Yusuke could be so capable of bouncing back from seemingly impossible situations most would break from, "we'll see. Lets just hope you can survive past your first mission."

"Hah! With you stalking me I doubt anything'll happen!" Yusuke grinned wider, noticing the genuine smile on Hiei's face and clapped him on the shoulder, earning a glare for his efforts, "so, since you interrupted me on my way home and it's been hours since I last had anything, what's say you an' me go an' eat someplace?"

"So long as it isn't ramen, then fine."

"Hey, I happen to like ramen!"

And so they ended up going to eat ramen because Yusuke was persistent and Hiei was too pleased at having regained Yusuke's friendship to put up much of a fight.

...But Yusuke's next mission would be coming up soon, and it involved a certain spirit fox and a certain wish granting item...


	6. Chapter 6

A figure slipped unseen and unnoticed towards Spirit World headquarters. It made its way to the wall and was inside the compound in another instant. Five minutes later and it was back out again, vanishing into the surrounding area.

It took hours before anyone noticed the Forlorn Hope's absence from the vaults.

Alarms began to blare and panicked guards ran throughout the hallways while up in the higher levels Koenma gulped and pulled at his shirt collar anxiously. How had this happened? The week his father left on vacation and something so priceless was stolen, and right out from under his nose, too!

"Ogre, get me Botan!" he shouted to his ever present assistant, "It looks like Yusuke will have a case sooner than we expected." He glanced at the video feed that a security camera had managed to pick up. A young man with vibrant red hair and striking green eyes calmly walked up to the case containing three of the most dangerous artifacts that had ever been created. He seemed to contemplate something before suddenly reacting, swiftly snatching up a simple mirror resting between a hauntingly twisted sword and a small orb surrounded by a sickly green aura, before running out of the room.

"Yuuuusuke! Guess who?" The cheerful visage of a blue-haired Grim Reaper dressed in a pink kimono flew down on an oar towards a junior high school rooftop. Yusuke, who had been avoiding both Keiko and classes up there, sighed and responded, "hey, Botan. What do you want?"

"Well, that's a fine hello!" She huffed, looking perturbed, and hopped off her oar, walking over to Yusuke's prone form, "What, I can't just come and visit you?"

"Yeah, right," Yusuke said from where he lay against the side of a wall. He'd been trying to sleep, "so? What do you need me for? It'd better be quick 'cus I got things to do."

"Somehow I doubt that, Yusuke," She frowned disapprovingly at her charge, "but you are right, Spirit World needs your help immediately!"

She waved her hands about expressively to emphasize her point as she explained the situation, "someone broke into Spirit World vaults and stole a very dangerous item! We don't know who this guy is or what he wants but it is imperative that you track him down!"

Yusuke's thoughts quickly turned to Hiei, remembering him saying that he'd broken into Spirit World not too long ago, and he scrambled to his feet, multiple questions on the tip of his tongue, "what? Do you know what this guy looks like? Is he a demon?"

He hid a sigh of relief when her description didn't match up with the demon that had so recently become his friend. "Fine, so you want me to track this guy down and get you back your toy, anything I should know about him?"

Botan worried her lower lip, eyes downcast, "no, I'm afraid we don't have any information on him, it's just so random."

"Great, well I'll get right on that, Botan... sometime later. It was nice talkin' to you again," Yusuke went back to sitting down and closed his eyes, hoping Botan would get the hint and leave.

"Yusuke, you don't understand the severity of this case!" She exclaimed in distress, "if you don't get it back before the end of the week, Human World will be destroyed!"

"Oh, great! Thanks for not telling me this sooner!" He growled up at her, though this news was definitely a cause for panic, why couldn't Spirit World look after their weapons of mass destruction better? "How do I even find him, do you know how freakin' big this city is?"

This complaint somehow managed to calm her down, "actually, I do!" She then pulled what looked like a watch out from somewhere on her person, "Ta-da!"

"Um, I'm gonna' find him with a wristwatch?" Spirit World was screwy, Yusuke decided.

"This is no ordinary wristwatch," she grinned proudly and pointed to the dials on its face, "it can track down any demon using their energy as a signal, isn't it great?"

"Yeah, real great. Give it here," Yusuke snatched the watch from her and turned it around, looking at it from all angles, "How do I even work this stupid thing?"

So Yusuke was now the proud new owner of a demon tracking watch. After a few more words of advice and encouragement Botan took off back to Spirit World, leaving Yusuke to begin his first case.

He stood where she left him and looked at the watch, "well now what?"

"You know you don't actually need that useless trinket, right?" Hiei appeared on the roof next to Yusuke, "my Jagan is perfectly capable of finding the demon." No need to tell Yusuke that he already knew the demon they were tracking... or that he'd been the one to suggest that Kurama steal the Forlorn Hope to begin with.

"Jesus, Hiei! What have I told you about freaking popping up like that?" Yusuke yelled shrilly.

"Until you learn to sense another being's energy I will continue to 'pop' up on you," Hiei said, unaffected by Yusuke's indignant question, "I suggest you learn quickly."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Yusuke grumbled, "so? You gonna' find the demon or are we just going to sit here all day?"

"I thought you had school, detective," Hiei said derisively, though he really didn't care, "won't the girl get angry with you?"

"Who, Keiko? Yeah, like I'm gonna' miss a perfect excuse to skip school cus' of her," Yusuke snorted, "Come on, Hiei, I thought you knew me better than that?"

"Just don't come complaining back to me when she hears of your absence and comes hunting you down," with that said, Hiei reached up and removed the ward wrapped around his head, making a big show of tracking down the 'demon' with his Jagan. "This way, detective, he's somewhere uptown."

While the two made their way towards Kurama, Hiei thought back to the conversation he'd had with the fox...

...A black shadow flitted to a stop on the sidewalk in front of a quaint home in a well-to-do neighborhood.

A red-haired boy sat near a window. He seemed troubled about something- a sickness in the family perhaps?

Hiei flared his energy, letting the lone occupant of the house know of his presence. He watched Kurama- who had still been sitting at his desk- flinch and look up, startled. The spirit fox moved swiftly and was downstairs in a matter of seconds, though he paused before opening the door, preparing himself to confront a possible enemy.

The door opened and Kurama walked out. His eyes were shadowed and dangerous, ready to attack the demon that had dared to approach him.

"Who goes there? Show yourself!" He said tightly, the fact that he'd been discovered by another demon after having gone unnoticed for so long had him worried. If they could find him, they could find his family.

"Over here, fox," Hiei walked towards Kurama, halting when he saw recognition enter the other's eyes, "I'm not going to attack your human family so you needn't be so defensive."

"Hiei?" Kurama hadn't thought he'd ever see the short demon again after the incident with Eight-Hands. He lowered his defensive posture a bit, though not all the way. He wouldn't until he knew what Hiei's motives were.

"Hn, I'm surprised you remember me, Kurama," Hiei stopped, not quite knowing how to phrase the next part, he hadn't really planned this conversation out in his head. Oh well, insults and baiting usually worked for him, "I see that you're still living this pathetic life in the Human World, have you been completely domesticated by that human woman yet?"

"What is your purpose in coming here, Hiei?" Kurama said, failing to rise to the bait.

Damn... but he should have known that it was harder to anger Kurama than everyone else, "tch, I was bored so I thought I'd visit and see if anything's changed, obviously it hasn't."

"I see..." Kurama looked at him appraisingly, as if trying to sniff out a lie or inconsistency, "I suppose I should invite you in then, since you seem so keen on catching up."

He turned and walked back into the house, beckoning Hiei to follow when he saw him hesitate. They went to the kitchen and while Kurama prepared some tea Hiei took a seat at the table.

"So where is the rest of your human family?" Hiei started, already knowing about the death of the father and sickness of the mother.

It was always a gamble when he played these games with the fox. He could never tell if he'd actually come out the winner at the end, or if he'd been fooled from the start. Hiei liked to think that his still being alive after the encounters was a point in his favor.

Kurama froze for a brief second, then continued on as if nothing had happened, "my father passed on a few years ago, my mother is fatally ill in a hospital nearby."

He turned to Hiei with an inscrutable expression on his face and set the cups of tea down on the table. He took his own seat, eyes never leaving Hiei's, and then challenged, "you should be quite happy now. The great Youko Kurama is freed of his human chains and can return to Demon World where he belongs, yes?"

This time it was Hiei who refused to rise to the bait, "what makes one person happy does not necessarily make another person happy. You are obviously smitten with this world, just as I couldn't care less for it."

"You have certainly grown wiser since our last meeting, Hiei," the masklike facade Kurama wore softened a little, "but if my mother should die then I will have no more reason to stay here."

"...The human doctors have no remedy for her illness?" Hiei asked cautiously, this was the part that determined whether or not Kurama would once again join team Urameshi as a spirit detective. He couldn't screw it up.

"No, she has but weeks to live," Kurama looked crestfallen, "nothing I have tried has worked either."

"I... may have a solution," Hiei said slowly, "tell me, fox, have you ever heard of the Forlorn Hope?"

Kurama looked up, eyes hopeful.

Hook, line, and sinker...

Hiei came out of his thoughts when he noticed them nearing their destination.

The hospital.

Kurama was just walking through the doors, on the way to see his mother, when he noticed their presence and halted. He turned around and waited for the two to make their way over to the side of the building.

Yusuke stopped, eyes narrowing, "this the guy, Hiei?"

"Yes, but I know him. He no doubt has a reason for his actions," That said, Hiei wondered how he'd be able to explain his part in the theft. Another thing he hadn't thought about, ah hindsight.

...There was also the small issue of never having heard from Yusuke and Kurama how exactly they'd survived this one.

"Well it had better be a good one 'cus I don't want to have run all the way here for nothing!" Hiei was a hard taskmaster and Yusuke was this close to getting pissed and starting a fight.

"Hiei, I didn't expect to see you here," Kurama said, then glanced between the two of them, "and with a human no less. Is there a reason for your visit?"

"Ask him," Hiei said dismissively, tilting his head to indicate Yusuke. He had too much to worry about right now, satisfying Kurama's curiosity would have to wait.

Yusuke blinked, not having thought about what he was supposed to do once he'd actually caught the bad guy, "um, okay, so you're the guy who stole the mirror-thing'y right?"

Kurama smiled, amused at the boy's antics, "yes, that would be me. Is there something you wanted?"

Uncertainty never suited Yusuke so he was quick to return to his usual cocky self. He jabbed his thumb at his chest and smirked, replying, "yeah, actually. If you couldn't tell, I'm a spirit detective. Yusuke Urameshi's the name, and I'm supposed to be getting that mirror back to Spirit World before my world gets blown up. So if you wouldn't mind...?"

Kurama's smile dimmed, "I'm sorry, detective, but I have great need of this mirror. If you will wait but a few more hours until the moon is out, I will return it to you as well as turn myself in."

"I don't get it, why?" Yusuke looked at Hiei and Kurama for answers but neither were forthcoming, "come on you guys, could you at least tell me why you stole the damn thing in the first place, and maybe why you two already know each other?"

Kurama sighed when he noticed Hiei's silence on the matter, "I will tell you, Yusuke. Please, follow me, there is someone I'd like you to meet."

They followed Kurama up to a room on the third floor. Once there, Yusuke was introduced to the kindest woman he had ever met and got the surprise of his life when he learned of her relation to Kurama. This woman was the demon's mother!

Yusuke watched as the frail woman spoke to the demon with obvious love and adoration in her voice. Even Hiei was abnormally polite and responded without his usually biting comments or short tone when she talked to him. Yusuke's small pile of questions for Kurama was growing rather steadily.

The three made there way up to the roof of the hospital and stood facing each other, waiting for someone else to speak.

It was Yusuke who broke first, not having infinite patience like Kurama or Hiei's complete and utter dislike for meaningless conversation, "so who was that, Kurama? I thought you were a demon, isn't that woman a human?"

Kurama smiled solemnly at the detective and began the story of his past and reason for stealing the Forlorn Hope. He also told them what the consequence for using the mirror was: his life.

"So you see, I had no choice in the matter, really," Kurama's hand clenched in his pocket around the mirror, though his face remained impassive, "I will do anything to keep her alive and happy. I owe her that much for all the pain and deceit she has suffered on my behalf."

He glanced up at the sky, ignoring Yusuke's stunned expression and the pensive look Hiei was sending him, "The moon is out now. If you will let me, I have something I need to do."

He walked away, pulling the mirror out of his pocket as he went and setting it on the ground. The demon-turned-human charged his energy into the mirror and un-hesitantly invoked it, "Mirror, please, grant me my wish, let my mother live her life in happiness and peace for many years to come!"

"You wish for your mother's happiness and continued life, know that in return your life will be taken, is this still your desire?"

"Yes."

"Then your wish is granted."

"No!" Yusuke cried out. He ran over and put his hand over the mirror as well, "like hell I'm going to watch you kill yourself! Do you think your mom is gonna' like not having a son?" He thought back to his mother's reaction to his death, "I've seen that before and I know I never want to see it again, so take my life instead, mirror guy!"

Hiei watched as two of the only people he actually cared for- even if he'd never admit it- tried to kill themselves for some women who wouldn't even live for half their demonic life spans.

He wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't be alone again, not after finding them for the second time.

Hiei snarled and dashed forwards- knowing he didn't have very long- to put his own hand over the mirror, "you two are complete fools if you think you're going to give your lives for some human!"

He winced at the mirror's force, the electricity stabbing at his palm, but managed a glare at Yusuke, "and you! Do you think I brought you back to life just so you could kill yourself again?"

Hiei grimaced at what he was going to do but pressed on, "Mirror, take my life, these two have much more use for theirs than I do for mine."

"It is done..."


	7. Chapter 7

"...What will we do about this, sir?"

The bright, cheerfully colored room seemed completely at odds with the heavy air surrounding its two occupants. A television centered near the front showed three boys passed out on the rooftop of a hospital, a small mirror lay between their bodies. The watchers beheld the screen with solemn expressions, each lost in their own memories of previous times.

Koenma sighed, gaze hardened with an unknown emotion, though it could have been guilt, "I don't know, Botan." He paused, then came to a decision, "you will have to go down there now, though. We need the mirror back in its rightful place, regardless of how it was returned."

"I understand, sir." Botan turned to leave but her eyes met Koenma's and she shakily asked one final question, "do you think... will he end up like Sensui?" The situation was all too familiar to both Spirit World representatives who had witnessed the tragically brilliant spirit detective shatter at the truth. He had also met a demon companion.

She'd hit the million-dollar question, one that Koenma had been contemplating as well, "we can only hope that he doesn't. For now, the situation must be monitored and this 'Hiei' character closely looked into."

He watched Botan leave for Human World, sucking on his pacifier nervously as soon as she left the room. He would not let what happened to Sensui happen to Yusuke. The world couldn't stand to have another renegade detective.

'Now, how best to deal with Kurama's punishment...'

Hiei awoke to someone shaking his shoulder and frantically yelling something in his ear. His immediate thought was to incinerate the noisy thing but held back on that temptation in favor of finding out exactly what it was he was going to be killing.

Hiei opened his eyes and his vision was suddenly filled with the color green. He blinked a couple of times to see if he was hallucinating but didn't have time to do much else before he was pulled up and rather vigorously hugged. He did not appreciate this action.

"Ow! Hiei, why'd you punch me?"

"Do you really need to ask that, detective?" Hiei got up and looked around. Yusuke was still complaining on the floor and Kurama was nowhere to be found, though he was probably inside with his mother. Clouds covered the moon now and everything was painted a pale blue. That didn't stop the Forlorn Hope from reflecting an inner light that caught his attention.

Hiei walked over to the mirror and watched it shine eerily in the dark. 'Why am I still alive?'

Yusuke was done pretending the punch had hurt and came over to join Hiei, looking just as seriously at the mirror, and voiced Hiei's question, "so, any idea why we're not dead yet?"

He turned his gaze to Hiei, hoping the other would have a better idea, but the demon looked just as perturbed at the situation as Yusuke. They were saved from any further contemplation when Kurama reemerged from the hospital and walked over to join them.

The three looked each other over, as if searching for hidden injuries or signs that they would keel over any second- Yusuke more obvious about this than the other two. Satisfied that no one was dying suddenly, Yusuke smiled, Hiei lost the tight expression on his face, and Kurama sighed happily.

"Well, it seems we're all ok," he said, pleased, "that's good."

Hiei merely grunted and Yusuke laughed in relief, "you can say that again!"

Kurama frowned then, "I do wonder though, Yusuke, how did you know that the mirror wouldn't take our lives?"

The detective looked dumfounded for a moment, "well, to be honest... I kinda' didn't think about it," he grinned at the two's bewildered expressions, "yep, wasn't thinking at all. In fact, now that I look back on it, that was really stupid of me cus' if I gave my life then my own mom would be sad, haha..."

Hiei and Kurama looked at each other, blinking, as if verifying that they'd both heard Yusuke correctly. Hiei sighed then, glancing skyward and inwardly asking for patience, while Kurama chuckled bemusedly into his hand.

"Really, Yusuke, you shouldn't be so impulsive," Kurama said teasingly, "your luck could run out someday if you're not careful."

"Don't bother, Kurama. Being impulsive is the only way the fool knows how to live," Hiei said, expression struggling between being peeved and its usual indifference as he attempted to maintain his composure.

Yusuke snickered, "but that would take all the fun out of things," his grin turned impish and he nudged his elbow at Hiei, "and look who's talkin', Hiei. I'm pretty sure I remember you jumping in to save us, so hah! Now who's being impulsive?"

Fortunately for Yusuke's continued existence- as Hiei was clearly contemplating murder- Botan chose that moment to finally arrive.

Swooping down from the heavens the cheerful grim reaper performed a rather dangerous-looking barrel roll before landing smoothly on the rooftop in front of the group.

Her cheer diminished when she saw that the two demons were not only awake but watching her intently, one of them with additional violence in his gaze and the other whose expression was more calculating than not. They also stood between her and Yusuke, meaning that to reach her charge- and the Forlorn Hope- she'd have to walk past them. 'Oh, why am I always given the tough assignments?' She gulped nervously, 'well here goes nothing...'

"Sooo...ahhaha. I'm just going to squeeze by you guys..." Botan giggled uneasily, eyes alternating between the two dangerous obstacles and the ground in front of her. She slid past the demons quickly and, once she was clear, moved to stand, (a.k.a. hide), behind Yusuke.

He quirked an eyebrow at her actions, highly entertained by her obvious discomfort at the others' presence, "can I help you, Botan?"

"Right!" She grinned widely, confidence back now that there was some distance between the demons and her immediate person, "I'm just here to congratulate you on a mission well done- and to collect the Forlorn hope, obviously."

She practically bounced when she held her hand out to Yusuke for the mirror.

"Tch, yeah, yeah. 'Good job' and all that," he turned and snatched said mirror from the ground, tossing it absently at Botan, "do I even get paid for this crap?"

Botan let out an indignant squawk at the rough handling of the priceless artifact, fumbling as she tried to catch it, and Yusuke's impudent question, "of course not, you brat! You're doing this because if you didn't the world would be destroyed!"

She turned to Kurama, righteous anger diminishing slightly, "and you'll be coming with me to Spirit World," Botan smiled shakily when his attention was focused on her sharply, "um, I'm sure Lord Koenma won't judge you too harshly, your intentions weren't that awful, after-all."

"...Certainly, I'll come with you," Kurama said after a moment. He gave a contemplative look towards Hiei, who remained impassive on the outside though inside he wondered if Kurama suspected him of treachery. No doubt the fox was remembering just as to where the information on- and the idea to steal- the Forlorn Hope had come from. And Kurama's vengeance was not something Hiei was so confident he could survive through.

Hiei nearly sighed in relief, his face giving the barest twitch, when Kurama's accusatory gaze left him. He watched the fox thank Yusuke one last time before leaving with Botan to Spirit World.

With their companions gone, and Yusuke having nothing else to distract himself with, the detective turned his attention to Hiei.

"So what now? Kurama wont be stuck in a prison cell for eternity will he?" Yusuke asked, half joking-half not. It was almost... 'cute' how he got so attached to the people he just met. Hiei was tempted to tease the detective about it but, looking into Yusuke's eyes, the concern and worry was too evident on the boy's face so he settled for his usual indifference.

"I highly doubt it," Hiei snorted, "if anything, the fox will be given community service for a few decades."

"Hang-on, decades?" Yusuke said, a bit incredulous, "that's kind of a really long time."

Hiei looked at him blankly as if insulting his intelligence- or just his memory, "Kurama is a demon you fool. A couple of decades are nothing compared to the thousands of years he'll live for."

"Right, right," Yusuke grinned, he was starting to enjoy pissing Hiei off. He had a feeling it was going to become something of a hobby for him, "I guess we should get off this roof now, huh? I don't think the hospital staff are gonna' let us stay here all night- aaand I really don't want to tell them where Kurama went to."

Hiei snorted quietly, tilting his head to the side in silent answer to Yusuke's statement. He spared the detective a final glance before vanishing from the rooftop, leaving the other to make his own way home.

"Che! Jerk," Yusuke grumbled to himself, it looked like Hiei was going to enjoy pissing him off just as much. He decided not to waste any more of his time and headed out.

Yusuke left the hospital the regular way- through the door. Hopefully the nurses wouldn't ask him where the others had gone to because he was not going to be explaining the existence of otherworldly creatures to them. He didn't really feel like taking up permanent residence in the loony bin any time soon.

...And then the realization that neither Kurama nor Hiei had actually told him how they'd met.

"God-dammit, you guys! It was an easy question!"

The passing nurse gave hi a stern glare and started clacking towards him with the intent of kicking him out for disturbing the healing patients. Yusuke quickly left before she could catch him, today was just not his day.

Hiei found himself in a half-built building on the outskirts of town. Deciding he would rest there for the night, as it looked like it might rain so the forest was out, he settled down on one of the wide iron beams near the roof. Unfortunately he couldn't bring himself to sleep just then, too many thoughts were parading around his head at the moment.

Most of these thoughts were centered on things he'd rather not think about, namely his being stuck in the past. Hiei grunted, burying his face in his scarf petulantly and crossing his arms.

The demon hated to admit it but he was beginning to miss quite a few things- the severe lack of power being the most prominent of his concerns. If he were going by the Spirit World's ratings he'd have been about an S-class before the time warp and without that energy his attacks were limited. Techniques could be memorized but without the energy necessary to use them, they were next to useless. He was back to using the Mortal Flame instead of the more powerful- and most assuredly demonic- Black Flame he'd mastered... and the Dragon was gone, tattoo missing from his arm. He'd have to re-master everything and do it twice as fast if he wanted to start changing things.

He hated being weak.

All the hard work and struggles he'd been through just to make it to that point, and for it all to just disappear like that? Hiei was keenly feeling its absence. There were just too many things to take into consideration, too many ways he could screw up... too many ways he could die. Too many ways Yusuke and the others could die.

What would he do about the Dark Tournament? They had barely survived that one and Hiei didn't like to think about all the close calls their team had seen.

Kurama's skin burning off after another one of Karasu's bombs hit him- 'get up, you damn fool!' Kuwabara being impaled by the elder Toguro's spindly fingers, still in shock over Genkai's murder... and Yusuke getting tossed around by the younger Toguro while they looked on, completely helpless to do anything as their leader fought- died- for them.

Hiei shook his head harshly- angered both at the inner show of emotion and the possibility that something could go terribly wrong. The tournament wasn't even the worst of it; he still had to worry about the Saint Beasts and, above them all, Sensui and his worthless group of psychics. Should he let it all play out as it had? What changes could he possible make, anyways?

He exhaled shortly, his mood worsening, and found himself wishing it had been Kurama who had gone back in time. No doubt the crafty fox would have had the whole thing figured out with extra contingency plans in place just incase the main one failed.

Another thought hit Hiei, one that had him gritting his teeth in frustration and budding fear. What would he do about Yukina? According to Yusuke, Genkai's training had taken about six months and after that came the Maze Castle mission. It was only after both of those things that Hiei had been given the tape concerning his sister's whereabouts. Had she even been captured by now? And if she was could he leave her there, even knowing the suffering she was going through at the hands of that bastard human?

Hiei noticed how tensed he'd become and slowly let out the breath that he'd unknowingly been holding. There was nothing to do now but prepare for the worst. He'd just have to continue with his original plan of building up both his and Yusuke's strength. If he started training earlier then they might be ready for the trials to come. Or, at the least, more ready than they'd been the first time.

He turned so that his face pressed against the cool metal pillar he leant on and forced his mind clear of all the troubling thoughts. One good thing remained though, and he smirked.

Yusuke would be absolutely furious at the training regimen Hiei would soon be putting him through.

'I'm going to make what Genkai did seem like child's play in comparison.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okie-dokie I have something to point out to ya'll, just in case you guys missed it. Botan said in the Sensui Arc that she was just a little ferry girl at the time that Sensui was spirit detective and didn't know about him. I'm calling BS 'cus she didn't hav'ta meet him to know him. So in my story she is just as concerned about the Sensui problem as Koenma. So, yeah. Discrepancy out of the way, yay for artistic license!
> 
> Also, the power jump Hiei was talking about, going from S-class back to D-class. I'm placing the time jump to a couple of years after the series' ending so I'm assuming that Hiei never stopped training and trying to better himself. He must have gone up another level, as in the series he never made it out of A-class. So he made it to S-class in my story, (and then I took it away XD).


	8. Chapter 8

"Dammit, Hiei! Would you stop freakin' jumping around for one-freakin'-second?"

Thwack!

"Ow!"

The sound of bamboo hitting flesh echoed dully through the forest canopy, cutting off the complaints rather abruptly.

Yusuke lay panting on the hard, dusty ground, shirt all but disintegrated by the constant abuse it had just suffered through. His ragged jeans, never very pristine to begin with, now sported a couple new tears in them as well. He didn't even want to think about what condition his shoes were in.

All in all, he was starting to regret accepting Hiei's offer to spar with him; it couldn't be helping his lifespan any.

"Giving up already? I thought you'd put up more of a fight than that," Hiei sneered mockingly at the detective from his, now stationary, position above him.

"Ugh, crap that hurt," Yusuke groaned at the ache developing over his entire body, especially his side, the little bastard kept aiming for that specific spot for some retarded reason. And as per usual, the bruises weren't even waiting until later to form. He heaved himself up, though, never one to accept taunting in any manner approaching graceful.

The two had been training- or rather Hiei had been training while Yusuke was just getting his ass kicked, repeatedly- for a full week now. Yusuke was beginning to lose count the number of times he'd woken up with sore muscles and a killer headache setting in.

Of course, all it took to keep him at it was the reminder that he was doing this to keep from ending up some pawn in the Demon World's politics.

...Or being eaten by a random demon whilst over there. Yeah, not such a pretty image to have stuck in his head.

'On the plus side,' he thought, narrowly managing to dodge another one of Hiei's vicious downward swipes, 'my spirit energy is increasing. I think I should be able to get about two spirit guns in, instead of just the one. Hell yeah, I'm awesome!'

To be perfectly honest, fighting with Hiei was actually kind of fun; if one could ignore all the pain they'd be in at the end of a sparring bout. But Yusuke was particularly hardheaded and was quite good at the ignoring part.

It helped that he couldn't actually recall having been so equally matched before now. The usual contestants of gang members and schoolyard punks offered only a brief moment of fevered adrenaline pumping through his veins before the fights were over.

And if Hiei were telling the truth, the challenges would only be getting more intense the more he fought. Yusuke couldn't wait.

He grinned savagely as he planted a fist in the other's gut, only for Hiei to retaliate with a fist to the face. They broke apart, breathing heavily and assessing the damage.

The little demon was ridiculously fast and it took all of Yusuke's concentration and instincts to keep up with his speed. Neither of the opponents held back from attacking, either, both striving to become stronger. Hiei, because he missed the power he'd gained in the future, and Yusuke, because nobody decided his future but him.

Hiei began the battle again, foregoing his mock weapon- a sword of bamboo in lieu of his actual blade- and instead attacked Yusuke with his fists. He was enjoying himself immensely- as he'd never had much opportunity to spar with the boy in the other timeline- and was impressed at how quickly the other was improving. It would be even more fun whenever the brat-prince, Koenma, decided to get off his pampered royal ass and send Yusuke over to Genkai's.

Hiei knew that, while he and Yusuke's fighting styles were similar, it was really only Genkai who could fully bring out Yusuke's true potential. The aged psychic was one of the more important people in the detective's life and Hiei held more respect for her than he'd like to admit to feeling for a human.

It would be only fair to let her take control of Yusuke's training, otherwise Hiei might really doom them all, as Yusuke was going to need that spirit wave orb when he fought Sensui.

He saw an opening and caught Yusuke off guard, smashing him soundly into a large boulder at the edge of the clearing. He watched the detective's head slam into the rock hard enough to leave cracks in it and decided to call it a day.

"I think you've had enough, detective, any more and I might cause permanent brain damage and then how will you solve your cases?" He snickered when Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, thanks for the concern, Hiei," Yusuke said from the crumpled heap he made at the base of the rock. He winced, feeling the back of his head for the bump that was sure to be there and grumbled irritably when his hand came away with blood, "great, now I get to go out and find another bandage for my head. You know the clerks at the stores are starting to look at me funny 'cus I keep buying up all of their medical supplies?"

Hiei smirked at the boy from where he was bent to pick up his cloak and real sword, "It's not my fault if you haven't learned how to steal properly and have to resort to actually buying your supplies."

"Che, wow, you're just full of wisdom and good advice today, aren't you," Yusuke replied sarcastically, "although I can't say I'm surprised that you've got the moral sensibilities of a five-year old toddler."

The two bickered on as they made their way back towards civilization. Hiei usually decided to stay near Yusuke after their fights, always wary of the other being caught off guard and too tired to defend himself if attacked. Not that he expected anyone to even know who the new spirit detective was at this point, but one could never be too cautious.

They hadn't managed to get halfway home when the world froze. Yusuke looked around himself with trepidation, expression narrowing at the odd smoky blue and grey color everything had turned.

He'd seen this before but it always freaked him out, damn Spirit World. He glanced to his right, wondering if Hiei had been frozen as well and was shocked to see the other was included in this little acid-trip.

Yusuke frowned, 'I guess Koenma already knows about him then, though Botan probably told him everything.'

Koenma popped into existence in front of them, eyeing Hiei with a carefully blank expression that cleared up when he looked at Yusuke, "well, it's good to see you're taking your job seriously, Yusuke, I was beginning to think I'd employed a slacker when I chose you for spirit detective."

"Har-de-freakin'-harhar," Yusuke snapped back, "what did you want, pacifier-breath, you lose your Sippy-cup?" His annoyance lightened some when he caught Hiei's barely perceptible laughter. It was nice to have some back up when it came to being frustrated with Spirit World.

"Yes, yes call me what you will. I'm still several hundred years your senior, boy, and don't you forget it!" Koenma huffed angrily when that failed to get him any respect out of Yusuke.

"Right, well, as it turns out I have a mission for you and Botan was out ferrying souls so I took time out of my busy day to come and inform you of it. Be grateful," the princeling ordered imperiously.

He then proceeded, despite Yusuke's protests against another mission, to outline the exact assignment Hiei had been waiting for. They- well, just Yusuke really, but Hiei would be going with anyways, toddler-be-damned- were to go fight in Genkai's tournament and learn her techniques.

All of this while remembering to take care of the demon Rando along the way, of course.

Yusuke agreed to the mission and Koenma went back to Spirit World. The blue-grey color bled away, the noise returned, and the world resumed its usual going-ons.

Detective and demon looked at each other in silent contemplation before continuing on their way.

"So was it just me or did Koenma just completely ignore your existence?" The words were spoken jokingly but one glance at Yusuke's face and the utter seriousness that was there seemed a complete contrast.

Hiei made a soft noise in affirmation, "I'd say he doesn't like me all that much."

Both of them stared at the path before them as they talked, seemingly entirely focused on the walk home and not the conversation currently taking place.

"Huh, well that's just too damn bad," Yusuke said casually, face still expressionless, "cus' if he wants me around to do his dirty-work as spirit detective for him, he's gonna' havta' put up with you, too."

Yusuke takes what few friendships he has very seriously. It's what makes everyone so loyal to him in the future, why so many people- Jin, Chuu, Kurama...- would betray a warlord for him, why Mukuro knew exactly who it was Hiei would choose to side with if it ever came to a fight between her and Yusuke...

Hiei grinned wickedly, "as if he could ever scare me away. I've already decided to remain here and his little temper-tantrums are hardly going to change my mind"

"Then I guess he'll just have to get used to you being around, won't he?" Yusuke shared his smirk, "so, now that that's out of the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this Rando guy, would you?"

As it turned out, Genkai's Tournament was the next day.

Koenma had only given him a date and Yusuke usually made it a point to never know such trivial things. That was for the suckers who actually cared about stuff like school being on Mondays through Fridays- and being on time.

Yusuke cursed bitterly, stuffing his wallet in his back pocket and a granola bar in his mouth before rushing out the door. He really hoped the bus was on time today.

As the bus was on time, Yusuke managed to reach his destination: a forest or, more specifically, a forest trail. He groaned at the prospect of the long hike through nature that would be taking up most of his day. 'Well, here goes nothing...'

Thankfully it looked like he'd have company, and misery so loves company.

Hiei leant against a tree, pushing himself off it once Yusuke neared him, "running a little late aren't we, detective?"

Yusuke snorted, waving his hand nonchalantly at the demon, "Yeah, yeah, you'll live. I made it, didn't I?"

They made their way steadily up the trail, Yusuke griping the entire time and Hiei contemplating the many ways he could kill him and hide the body in the dense forest. Thankfully for the rest of the world, the detective eventually got too winded to make any more complaints.

Finally, the trail ended at a towering stairway.

Yusuke whimpered rather pitifully. With a broken look towards Hiei, who merely turned his head to the side, devoid of pity, they passed through the gated red entrance and began the tortuous trek up the Stairway From Hell.

A massive crowd greeted them once they reached the top and Yusuke snickered at Hiei's obvious look of disgust at being so completely surrounded by humans.

"Payback," Yusuke drawled out, grinning.

"Shut it, detective, or you won't make it to the tournament- I'll kill you myself before you can get there," Hiei snarled, the smells and sounds from all the humans were making him a bit more short-tempered than usual.

Yusuke, still grinning, was about to reply when he saw the absolute last person he'd ever expected to be at the tournament.

"Kuwabara? What the hell are you doing here, man?" The orange-haired delinquent turned in shock at the familiar voice.

"Urameshi?"

Neither of the two boys noticed Hiei's face fall even further. Both too busy catching up in their own... special way, which involved beating the crap out of each other and throwing around immature insults. 'Great. I had no idea the idiot was going to be here. Now I'm going to have to baby-sit both of them.'

Kuwabara blinked in confusion when he finally noticed Hiei, "hey, who's this guy, Urameshi? I've never seen 'im around school before. S'he a freshman?"

"Hah, well that would be really weird..." Yusuke laughed at the mental picture of Hiei being forced to go to their school. Somehow he didn't think the blue uniform and building full of children would go over well with Hiei. He quickly explained the situation, hoping that Kuwabara wouldn't ask too many questions.

He didn't get very far in his explanation.

"What? He's a demon?" Kuwabara's high-pitched voice was thankfully lost in the chatter; otherwise things might have gone badly for them, what with being surrounded by a crowd of demon killers and all.

"Shh! God, Kuwabara, would you be quiet?" Yusuke said, yanking the other down to his height and hastily flattening a hand over his mouth, "do you want everyone to freak? Don't worry I'll explain everything later, sheesh, you're such a freakin' baby!"

Kuwabara's response was cut off by the sound of heavy doors opening. Slowly the crowd quieted and people watched reverently as a shape could be seen moving out of the shadows. A short figure emerged from the building and a collective gasp was heard when it's identity was revealed.

Genkai stood, smoking a cigarette and disdainfully surveying the group before her, "Well, you're all here so let's begin."

She gestured towards a pot at her side, which appeared to be filled with pieces of paper, "We'll start with the drawing of lots. If the one you draw is red, congratulations you pass. If it remains white, go home because you're wasting my time."

Yusuke was pleased to note that his lot turned red and was shocked when Kuwabara's did as well. He turned to Hiei questioningly when he saw that the demon wasn't holding a piece of paper, "hey, Hiei, what's up? Aren't you gonna' fight in this thing?"

Hiei sighed, "as much as I'd like to, detective, I have little use for Genkai's powers so it would be pointless for me to join."

"I hear 'ya, man. I'm not really here for that either, I was kind of just hoping she'd help me get rid of my sixth-sense cus' it's been bothering me my whole stinkin' life," Kuwabara said, nodding in agreement. He growled in anger when Hiei merely snorted condescendingly, "hey, you got somethin' to say to me, shorty?"

"Yes, fool, why would you give up something so obviously valuable?" Hiei shook his head contemptuously, "most would sacrifice a great deal to have what you were born with."

He pinned the taller one with a sharp look, crossing his arms, "and you would just throw it away so easily? I'll never understand you humans"

"Alright, break it up, you two. You guys can fight it out after the tournament, got it?" Yusuke interrupted before things could get out of hand, "look, everyone's going inside already so save it."

They proceeded into the large warehouse-like room and, like those who had entered before them, were taken aback by the sheer amount of game systems that took up space within.

"Wow, do you think the old hag actually plays all these games, or do they just sit here all day?" Yusuke said absently, glancing around himself in wonder.

"Aw, hey, check it out, Urameshi, she's got Goblin City!" Kuwabara said excitedly from where he'd wandered.

Hiei watched on in silent discomfort, games were never his thing. It was probably for the best that he'd decided to opt out of this mission.

He looked up at Genkai, who was explaining the rules of the preliminary round from a peculiar open-topped steel cage attached to the ceiling with long, heavy chains.

He found her watching him knowingly, even as she spoke aloud to everyone else. Slowly, he turned his gaze to the other demonic presence that he could feel within the room, though it was nearly entirely masked. A short, unassuming little boy wearing a beaded necklace worked diligently at the games, unaware of the attention he'd garnered.

Hiei looked up again and saw Genkai smirk at him. Good, so she already knew about the threat, the old woman was smart, he'd give her that much. He went back to leaning against the far wall near the exit.

Yusuke would just have to win the tournament and everything would begin falling into place, this whole time travel thing was so much easier than it was made out to be.


	9. Chapter 9

Hiei was very nearly ready to torch the entire building and everyone in it. Literally. And with lots of insane laughter.

He hissed softly in irritation when another senseless human walked through his personal space. Really, it was a wonder he hadn't killed them all. The obnoxious sounds coming from all the game machines was driving him mad and if he heard one more idiot sing on the karaoke stage he would slaughter the fool.

Of course, Yusuke remained completely oblivious to the homicidal demon in his midst as he and Kuwabara were actually enjoying the worthless contests.

Thankfully, Genkai was there to save the day, her voice ringing out over the noise, "that's enough. Everyone who passed, follow me. Everyone else, get out of my sight."

Hiei was mildly amused by the old woman; she definitely knew how to keep the inferior morons in their places. He left his spot against the wall where he'd been trying to keep as far from the rest of the crowd as possible, and proceeded towards the exit. Hopefully Yusuke would be one of the first people out so he wouldn't have to wait long.

And lo and behold, there was the detective's voice now, the owner of which was laughing loudly at the oaf who angrily shouted something back.

Yusuke blinked when he spotted Hiei already outside, having lost track of him earlier, "I guess you're not one for games, huh?"

"If by games you mean 'useless contraptions that weaken the mind and body', then yes, I am not one for 'games'," Hiei said with disgust evident in his voice.

"Wow you're a real negative guy, aren't you?' Kuwabara muttered over from Yusuke's side.

Hiei shot a dark glare his way but didn't deign to retort.

He looked around wordlessly and noticed that the previously vast group of tournament goers had been greatly reduced. Genkai was currently leading them up a winding path heading deeper into the forest. A forest that seemed to grow darker and more oppressive the further they advanced. Deceptively harmless wards were strung up along the trees closest to the open pathway. They glowed faintly with concealed power.

No birds could be heard in the dense foliage and eyes that reflected light peeked out from the underbrush at them as they passed. This was definitely a forest of the demonic persuasion. It was probably a good thing that Genkai had set up base here, god knows without her there would have been a drastic increase in 'mysterious, animal related' human deaths throughout the area.

She came to a stop at a place where the wards could be lowered and everyone filed in around her, "Your next test will be to make it through this forest." Yusuke groaned unhappily at that, "At the other side is a large oak tree. If you can make it to that point in two hours then you can advance." She eyed everyone callously, "I'll come and get the ones who don't make it later."

An unnervingly hollow sound echoed out from the trees and a chilled breeze swept through, even though it had been warm out up until that point. Yusuke shivered, damn forest.

Genkai was immune to the haunting noise and coolly set up her stopwatch.

"On your marks, get set, go!" They were off, Hiei keeping pace deliberately with Yusuke and Kuwabara, though he wasn't planning on sticking around for much longer.

He could already see the ones who would make it through the test, and those who couldn't.

'Good, that's half the competition gone, and the ones left are pathetically weak. Yusuke should have no problem.' Hiei smirked.

"Here's a little bit of advice, don't run straight through. Listen to your senses and let them guide you!" With those parting words Genkai suddenly sprinted past everyone with impressive speed for someone her age and Yusuke gaped openly.

"Damn, she's fast. You'd think for sure she'd break a hip or something," Yusuke grumbled. He absently noted Kuwabara running off to a side path- and without so much as a good-bye, even, the jerk- but decided not to follow him. Trust Kuwabara to listen to the authority figure, the guy could hardly call himself a delinquent.

He, on the other hand, would be completely ignoring the old bat's words. This way was way quicker!

"Hn. Perhaps you should have went with the fool," Hiei said, unconcernedly crushing Yusuke's plans, "but I suppose you prefer to bull your way through things so I'll leave you to it."

"Wait, what?" Yusuke puzzled out, looking a little wide-eyed at Hiei, "you mean you're not staying with me?"

"I don't have time to watch you run through a forest," the demon said shortly, "there isn't anything in here that should be able to harm you, anyway."

His red eyes flickered over Yusuke indifferently, "besides, isn't this your mission, detective?" He shook his head in what was definitely a mocking way, "I believe it was you who entered the tournament, not I."

He didn't wait for a reply before abruptly vanishing, leaving Yusuke to curse him out on his own.

There were more important things to be done.

Genkai had gotten a head start on him but with his speed that was trivial. She also wasn't exactly trying to outpace him so it didn't take long before he spotted her in the distance.

She glanced back and, seeing him, gave a contemptuous snort, though she didn't make any move to stop him from following.

The two unlikely companions were silent on the brief flight towards the tree. No doubt Genkai was curious about the demon's motives but she was withholding her questions until they reached their destination.

Hiei's face was carefully blank, showing only mild annoyance at having to traverse the pest-ridden forest, though on the inside his mind was racing. His integration into the past had been mostly successful so far, but it was hard not to consider the possibility of returning to the future. He wasn't overly sentimental about things but he almost missed the ties that had been formed the first time around. Too many memories came to bother him when he interacted with familiar people and settings, reminding him that those conversations would never happen again. They might as well have never happened at all.

And so, although he hadn't really decided on a definitive course yet- and was mostly going on an impromptu thought that had suddenly occurred to him- he was trying one more avenue of action.

Genkai might know something about the artifact.

She hadn't been his first choice as a confident, but he had already been forced to eliminate most everyone else he knew. It was obvious that Kurama had no knowledge of it since he hadn't in the future- otherwise none of this would have happened- and he didn't trust Koenma enough not to kill him outright if he went to the demigod for help.

He scowled, the only one who knew anything concrete about his predicament would prefer to have him either sent back to Demon World or stuck in a prison cell in the Spirit World, fan-tastic.

He gave up dwelling on it when he subconsciously noted the ground elevation slowly sloping upwards. The trees began to thin out and soon they reached the top of a hill whose center held what could possibly be the largest tree in the Human World, (Demon World's trees could reach above skyscraper levels and were much more impressive, even if most tried to eat anything that came near them).

Genkai slowed to a halt at the base of the tree and pulled out another cigarette, casually lighting it with the spirit energy focused at her fingertips.

Hiei sneezed lightly at the pungent smoke, his hair fluffing a bit at the same time- Genkai smirked. He glared sharply in annoyance; cursed woman probably knew how sensitive a demon's nose was and had done that on purpose.

She merely pulled the smoldering cancer-stick out of her mouth and exhaled a cloud of white smoke up into the breeze, "so, was there some special reason you decided to follow me?" She eyed him taciturnly, "the toddler better not have sent you, I already told him to keep out of my business."

Hiei snorted, of course, Koenma was meddling with everyone, it seemed, "the baby doesn't control me. I did come here with his newest detective though, he's... not very happy with me at the moment." He grinned bitingly, baring his fangs openly for a moment, then tilted his head impassively downward, "no, I have a question for you."

She looked at him sardonically, "and what makes you think I'll answer your question, or that I'll even be able to answer it? You do know that I have a reputation for killing your species, right?"

Instead of replying- he knew from the future that Genkai didn't kill unnecessarily, just the demons that got in her way- Hiei pulled off his cloak and revealed the artifact currently holding his wrist hostage.

"Do you recognize this?" He studied her face for any sign that she did, half-hopeful though prepared for being disappointed.

She 'hmm'd', becoming serious and tapping her cigarette absently, letting the ashes float away on the wind. Walking closer, she reached out her hand to look at it, glancing at him for permission to touch his arm as she knew how finicky demons were about their personal space. At Hiei's consent she brought his wrist closer to her eyes and examined the artifact and the raised symbols etched onto its surface.

She sighed in consternation and dropped his arm, "sorry, demon, I can't say that I do. The language isn't anything I've ever come across and I'm not an expert on ancient magical items either." She shrugged, "you're out of luck."

Hiei gritted his teeth together, feeling, for a moment, a passing flash of self-defeat, then exhaled slowly. There was nothing he could do then. His next best bet would be to wait until Koenma trusted him enough not to immediately arrest him for stealing a dangerous item from the vaults or wait until he could safely survive the Demon World without getting slaughtered.

Until then he'd have to find a better way of concealing the thing. He disliked fighting in his cloak and long sleeves were a hindrance to his speed, though not by much; it was still highly annoying.

Hiei tried one more avenue of questioning, "if you don't know anything about it, do you know of anyone who would?"

"I'm afraid not, most of the people I used to know died early fighting some rogue demon or other, you're on your own with this one," that said, Genkai walked back over to the tree trunk and sat down to wait.

Hiei shifted silently before doing the same.

Though it had been almost half an hour already.

He reached up and loosened the ward on his Jagan a little, if he would be forced to wait for everyone he could at least check up on the detective... and Kuwabara too, he supposed.

Yusuke cursed under his breath, using increasingly more colorful words, as he tripped over another upturned root hidden in the forest undergrowth.

He didn't get what was so difficult about running through the damn woods that the old hag had to make it part of her stupid tournament. So far the only problems he'd encountered were tree branches whacking him in the face. Although, the screams he was hearing from elsewhere in the area meant that there had to be something threatening about the place, not that it was bothering him.

"Hah! And they told me not to run straight through the middle, shows how much they know!"

And then something tried to kill him.

He reacted without thinking, ducking low; his arm darted out and gripped the throat of whatever had just tried to take his head off.

Yusuke blinked and got a good look at the bat-creature... thing that he'd managed to acquire.

"What the hell?" He shook the demon curiously, "no wait, I think the better question would be, 'what the hell are you?'"

"Hiss! Baldock is not needings to be answering you, ugly human!" The bat-creature, now identified as Baldock, snarled wildly at him. It slashed at Yusuke with elongated claws and the detective yelped, dodging hastily, though he still held on. It continued trying to reach his vital organs and Yusuke was quickly running out of good humor.

"Dammit, stay still you freaky retard-baby!"

He huffed in frustration, patience coming to an end when the claws nearly got him, and dropkicked Baldock into a tree. The bat demon slid down the trunk and collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

Satisfied, Yusuke left the clearing and sprinted off towards the finish point, grinning in triumph. Hiei may have finished sooner but he had killed his first demon.

Score one: Yusuke!

Hiei felt a flicker of pride before grimacing as he realized that Yusuke would very likely feel the need to brag about killing the pathetically weak bat demon.

He re-tightened the ward and settled down to wait again; it wouldn't be too long until the detective arrived.

Genkai lifted her head suddenly and turned her gaze to a point on the hill. Hiei followed it and twitched slightly when he saw Kuwabara crest over the top.

"H-hey, did I make it? Am I the first one?" He grinned widely when he saw Genkai's answering nod, "awesome, I knew I'd beat Urameshi!"

Then he finally noticed Hiei's presence, "ahh! Demon! Er- I mean, hey Hiei, what's up? Ehehe..."

Hiei scowled, he'd forgotten how annoying Kuwabara was at this stage. The fool had become so much more... tolerable in the future, being less prone to shrieking in alarm at the supernatural beings who coexisted within his life.

The strength he would end up showing in the trials to come would make him both wiser and powerful enough to have earned Hiei's respect. Now though, he was just a naive child with an honor code.

'I suppose I'll have to hel-assist him as well as the detective if we're to survive our ordeals later.'

That said, nothing was making Hiei be nice to Kuwabara, "quiet, fool, save your inane questions for someone who cares."

Kuwabara forgot his fear and growled, stalking up to the short demon, "hey! It was a freakin' question, you don't have to be such an antisocial jerk about it!"

He rounded on Genkai, "and aren't you supposed to exorcise the evil monsters, there's one sitting right here!"

She scratched her head inattentively and gave him an un-amused look, "kid, if I went around exorcising every demon I met I'd be wasting my time. Not all of them are mindless animals, and if you'd pay attention and stop blindly following what you've heard, then you'd see that."

Her piece said she turned back to watching the competitors crawling through the forest. It appeared that most of them were incapacitated, with the rest of them nearly at the tree.

In fact, there was one now.

Yusuke brightened when he saw the base of a hill, the top bearing a giant tree that seemed to overshadow the entire clearing around it, "guess this is the place, hells yeah, no more stupid forest hikes for me!"

He made it to the top and felt his triumphant mood die a little. It seemed Kuwabara had gotten there before him. Dammit, now the other would never let him live it down.

Yusuke shoved his hands in his pockets huffily and shuffled his way up the last few steps.

He glanced nonchalantly at Hiei when he noticed him and moved towards the demon, "hey, Hiei, you have a nice chat with Grandma while I was gone?"

Hiei simply ignored his comment while Genkai snapped a glare his way, "watch you attitude, smartass, or I'll kick you back to the start and you can redo the damn test."

"Tch, hag," Yusuke sniped back, "so how much longer til' this part's over?"

Genkai rolled her eyes exasperatedly, why did she always get the smart-alecks? "About thirty more minutes, dimwit. Do you think you can sit still and be quiet for that long or do I need to knock you out to shut you up?"

Thankfully Yusuke managed to shut up until the time limit wore out, during which a few more people made it out of the forest. He looked over his future competition, sizing them up just as he could see them doing the same as well. He noticed them sending curious glances towards Hiei, likely sensing that something was amiss, and smirked at their confusion.

'Wait-a-sec that little guy doesn't look very confused...' Yusuke's eyes narrowed when he saw the frigid stare the small monk was shooting at Hiei, who seemed content to send his own, knowing? smirk- wide and full of teeth- back at him. What did Hiei know about that guy?

Yusuke's eyes widened, then, and his mouth made a little 'oh' of understanding. That guy must be the demon!

'He sure as hell doesn't look like much of a demon. He looks like a freakin' kid.' Yusuke sighed, 'forget this! I'll just ask Hiei, though he'll probably give me some asshole-ish answer and tell me to figure it out myself. Oh well, here goes...'

Yusuke edged his way over to Hiei, who had been trailing near the back of the group once they'd started walking to the next area of the competition. Hiei's expression seemed equal parts amusement and resignation as he watched him draw closer. He was probably already expecting Yusuke's question.

"Was there any particular reason that guy was staring you down, Hiei?" Yusuke murmured casually once he'd gotten close enough that no one could eavesdrop on them. "Do I need to be the adult in this situation and tell you not to pick fights with little kids?"

Hiei snorted indulgently, "that 'little kid' is a demon and therefore your target, Rando." He focused his gaze on the distant figure of the deceptively innocent boy walking further ahead of them, "if you'd actually used the technique I showed you for sensing another beings energy then you might have been able to see for yourself, and not go asking foolish questions."

"Hah, oh yeah, you did teach me something like that, my bad," Yusuke grinned and trained his senses on the monk. Immediately he noticed what Hiei had been talking about, 'holy crap, guess Hiei was right. That guy's trying to hide it but his energy feels almost like Hiei's... definitely different than all the other people he's walking next to at least.'

"Well, that makes my job a helluva lot easier. He's hidin' his energy levels though, I can't pick up on how strong he is," Yusuke grumbled, squinting at Rando, "man, what a pain."

Rando turned around and glared furiously, and for a moment his eyes flashed a demonic red. Yusuke held his gaze confidently and smirked back. He slowly raised his hand and made the notorious gesture for 'you're going to die,' pulling his finger across his throat mockingly and cocking his head back slightly in challenge.

The psychic-killer snarled soundlessly and went back to ignoring them.

They'd finished walking anyways, having left the forest and traveled back to the temple grounds. They stood in front of another large warehouse-like building, though Yusuke doubted it was to play more video games. He was hoping he'd actually get to fight people this time.

Genkai stood once more in front of the wooden doors, lit cigarette in hand, "alright, now that we've eliminated the cannon-fodder from everyone else, it's time to begin the actual fights," she eyed them skeptically, "I hope for your sakes that it wasn't just luck that got you this far."

"Bring it on, Grandma, I've been waiting ta' hear this from you all day! The hiking was getting kinda' lame, anyways," Yusuke shouted up at her, already feeling the adrenalin pumping at the prospect of a good fight. He heard Hiei hiss at him to shut up but just sent the other a disparaging grin.

"Come on, Urameshi, you're just gonna make us waste more time," Kuwabara said in tired reproach, he knew that pretty much nothing he said would get past Yusuke's endlessly antagonizing ways.

"Enough!" Genkai snapped out, "Everybody inside, I'll explain your next challenge there!"

They walked into a dark room where all light seemed to drown and evaporate in the hidden depths. Sounds echoed from far corners, revealing the immensity of the room, even if no one could see its extent.

Yusuke blinked, "what are we playing hide n' seek now? I thought you said the kiddy games were over, Grandma?"

Genkai studiously ignored his idiotic quip, "You will all be fighting one-on-one in the dark. First match: Chin-Po versus Musashi- begin!"

The battles went on steadily, most of them ending quickly, with Yusuke trying to get a better picture of what was happening without his eyesight.

Then it was Kuwabara's turn.

And he was facing Shorin, a.k.a. the demon, Rando.

Yusuke was suddenly much less excited for his fight, and much more afraid for Kuwabara.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTE: I made a slight adjustment in the way things worked in the tournament so Kuwabara's part was significantly increased and Rando's human form got a small backstory. Also, I moved things along so that the side fights were skimmed over ('cus really, who actually cares about Yusuke vs. Kibano?) and went right on to the serious, plot moving fights. I'm not too concerned with the schematics of this one, guys lol

Hiei watched grimly. Kuwabara hadn't learned his spirit sword yet; there was no possible way he could win, much less come out alive.

And looking at Rando now, Hiei could see a twisted smirk curve into being on his face. It promised bloodshed and a painful end to Kuwabara.

The demon had worked out that both he and the detective knew the oaf and that his death would anger them. Hiei hated fools who tried to manipulate him like that. His eyes narrowed in return- in hatred rather than challenge.

Though he would like to put the lowlife in his place, now was not the time to interfere. If Yusuke could not prove to Genkai that he was a worthy apprentice then... well Hiei couldn't think of the countless things that would go wrong if Yusuke never learned from Genkai.

Kuwabara, oblivious to the danger but not the atmosphere, began his usual pre-battle spiel, "what's with the look, Urameshi, you afraid I'm gonna' beat this punk too bad?"

The 'look' Yusuke was currently bearing was one of dawning horror. He knew the danger Kuwabara was in and, mind stuttering, moved to do something to stop the fight before it could begin.

"No, you idiot! You can't fight this guy, he's a freakin' demon!" said without a care for onlookers.

Kuwabara paled at that but bulled through, as was his way- Hiei really had no idea what could possibly be going through the other's mind during the crucial life and death moments their group so often had- "so what? You think I can't take this guy?" He huffed and shoved his finger at Yusuke's face, "what makes you so special anyway that you get to fight him, huh?"

By now Genkai was getting impatient. Hiei saw her cross her arms and give him a pointed look, as if saying, 'well? I'm not getting any younger. Tell your detective and his idiot friend to hurry it up.'

Hiei scoffed a little, as if he needed her to tell him that. Still, he shot a paralyzing- quite literally, as he was using he demonic energy to back it up- glare towards Rando, who appeared to have been about to make some instigating comment that probably would have gotten Kuwabara killed sooner. The other shut his mouth as if he'd never intended to open it.

Deep- we're talking way down here- in the recesses of Hiei's consciousness a part of him was afraid. Of course, the feeling was so wrapped up in anger, dislike, and a supreme aversion towards ever showing any kind of friendly emotion that not even he noticed it.

This part was currently suffering a major panic attack- the likes of which have never been seen before- at the thought of one of it's own being killed. Some of that panic managed to force it's way past the barriers on Hiei's emotions and firmly situate itself in his already racing mind.

In other words: Hiei was panicking. He had little-to-no clue how to stop Kuwabara from entering this fight. In every other instance of their lives Hiei, Kurama, and Yusuke had never been able to deter Kuwabara from the path of his choosing. Not with the Four Saint Beasts, not with the Dark Tournament, and certainly not with Sensui- though to be fair, they had all been in on that one.

That wasn't going to stop him from trying, though. Being exceptionally stubborn was an innate talent that their little group seemed to have... in spades.

In the few seconds it took Hiei to make his way over to the cause of his grievances, Yusuke's fingers had found themselves around Kuwabara's collar and the both of them were yelling at each other in incomprehensible words.

He steeled himself inwardly and, in true Hiei fashion, started out with an insult.

"Why do you bother, detective? If the fool wants to die so badly then let him."

Yusuke started sputtering and dropped his hands from around Kuwabara's neck. Kuwabara, meanwhile, appeared to puff up in preparation for a new argument with Hiei.

"Hey! I'll have you know-"

"Save it," Hiei snapped out, "the only thing that will happen if you go out there will be a pathetic fight ending with your death."

He sneered, "have you even managed to access your spirit energy yet? Because without it you stand even less of a chance."

Yusuke had quieted by now, though he appeared ready to jump into the conversation if it looked like Hiei couldn't convince Kuwabara that this was the absolute worst time to be stubborn.

"I don't need spirit energy to win this," Kuwabara shouted, "alls' I need are my two good fists to beat him back to whatever nasty place he came from!"

Hiei twitched, reigning in on the urge to wrap his own hands around the fool's neck as Yusuke had done, "you must be even more idiotic than I thought to believe that you could defeat him without spirit energy."

He shot another quieting glare Rando's way, "that lowlife may be weak by most standards, but he has killed 99 human masters of martial arts and copied their techniques. What have you accomplished besides a few pathetic fights with child delinquents?"

Kuwabara's face turned a particularly funny purple color in his rage, "that's it! I don't care what either of you guys say!"

He started walking into the gloom, "I'm fighting this and that's final!"

Genkai shrugged at Yusuke and Hiei's baffled expressions, "don't look at me, if he wants to fight a losing battle that's his problem."

She turned to Rando, "well? Are you going to join him or just stand there all day- or do I need to disqualify you?"

Rando merely smiled guilelessly. His cover was blown but he'd save the threats and maniacal laughter for when he actually stole the hag's technique. That didn't stop him from getting a quick word in to the pathetic human-loving demon and his pet spirit detective before he killed the orange-haired idiot.

"I hope you don't have any last words for you friend because I doubt he'll hear them over the sounds of his own bones breaking." The two in question growled lowly at his words and he laughed at their helplessness, "but don't worry, I've got a few last words of my own for him, right before I rip off his head!"

He walked off before they could get a word in, chuckling sinisterly the whole way.

"Dammit, Kuwabara, you better not lose to this guy!" Yusuke shouted into the darkness. It didn't ease the sense of powerlessness he felt and he clenched his fists hard to stop himself from interfering.

"If it looks like the fool is going to get killed, I recommend jumping in to save him."

"What?" Yusuke looked to Hiei in shock, never expecting the other to suggest something that sounded a lot like caring.

"Just watch the fight, detective."

It was that moment that Botan chose to arrive. The grim reaper materialized next to Yusuke, (on the far side and out of reach of Hiei, of course).

"Hello everyone, sorry I'm late to the party! There were a couple of spirits who didn't want to move on just yet and it took some convincing," she grinned cheerfully, the despondent atmosphere not quite clicking with her.

That quickly changed when she saw the looks on their faces, "hang on, what's the matter? You didn't lose the tournament already, did you?"

She looked around, finally noticing her surroundings, "and why is it so darned dark in here? How are we supposed to watch the fights if there's no light?"

Hiei turned to Yusuke and deadpanned, "why is she here?"

Momentarily distracted from his thoughts by the bubbly messenger of death's spontaneous arrival, Yusuke responded back, "beats me, she always pops outta' nowhere like this."

She smiled and crossed her arms smartly, "well somebody's got to keep you on your toes, we can't have you getting out of shape now."

"Look. Now is really not the time, Botan. We kinda' have a situation here," Yusuke pointed out. Could nobody but him see the certain doom Kuwabara was heading into?

She 'hmm'd' thoughtfully glancing at Yusuke and Hiei, "so tell me, what's the problem? Neither of you two look to be hurt in any way..." she trailed off expectantly.

Yusuke pointedly stabbed his finger towards the fighting area and bit out, "Kuwabara's about to get his ass kicked by our friendly neighborhood demon right now because he's too stupid to realize he's going to get his ass kicked! That's the damn problem!"

Botan gasped, "oh dear, this is horrible!" She glared and pointed her own finger out at Kuwabara's position, "well? Why didn't you stop him?"

Any answer was cut off when Genkai raised her hand and started the fight, "if you brats are done distracting everyone then lets proceed with this tournament. Begin!"

"No..." Yusuke breathed out, mind freezing as all the possible outcomes of the fight lanced through his brain. None of them were good.

Hiei was silent, words were of no use to him; he needed to come up with a plan.

'...And it needs to be one worthy of Kurama...' He grimaced. Planning was not his forte.

Away from all the action, though not for very long, Kuwabara was sizing up his opponent, 'He still doesn't look like a demon to me, heck he kinda looks like that one kid I always had'ta babysit...'

Warning bells went off in Kuwabara's head. Yes, some things were different than what he remembered- the kid had shaved his head bald and had much different clothes on- but, now that he really looked, he knew he recognized his opponent. His eyes widened and his mouth gaped open, silently mouthing denials 'no it can't be, I just babysat for 'im last month!'

"Hey, you!" Kuwabara shouted at the bored-looking apparition before him, "where'd you steal that body from!"

That got Rando's attention, "ah, so you noticed?" He sneered sadistically, "I wonder, did you happen to know this human?"

He eyed the outstretched hand of the borrowed body he wore with mocking casualness, "you see, I had to acquire this one to remain undetected by the spirit world's tracking team while I learned my new techniques."

His eyes flicked up to watch Kuwabara's stunned face slowly turn to anger, "it's unfortunate, but one must do what one must do to move up in this world. You understand."

That was when Genkai's voice echoed towards them. Rando grinned, "ah well, it doesn't appear that, that knowledge will do you much good, seeing as you'll soon be dead."

"How dare you..." Kuwabara struggled with his words, his thoughts clouded by the storm of pain and rage a child's death brought on him, "how dare you kill a innocent little kid for some...some stupid power thing!"

"I'll kill you for what you've done, monster," Kuwabara gritted out quietly.

Rando snorted, "Ha! I'd like to see you try, human."

With that, Rando began his attack, not waiting for Kuwabara to regroup his thoughts enough to fight back.

Kuwabara was completely thrown off guard by the demon's vicious assault. He quickly found a fist coming for his face and shut his eyes, putting up a weak defense.

Rando blew right through his crossed arms and landed a punishing blow to Kuwabara's jaw.

Kuwabara fell down and stayed down.

"What, did I kill you already?" Rando taunted, "guess I'll go tell your friends the good news."

'...Heh, Urameshi hits harder than that...'

Kuwabara's hand twitched and the number-two fighter at Sarayashiki Junior High raised himself up off the ground, ready to give it his all.

'There's only one way to win this thing.'

Despite what many believed of Kuwabara, he was actually one of the brighter individuals in existence. Though it was more street smarts in his earlier years until he dedicated himself to higher learning.

That was more than enough for this fight and he was going to prove it.

"Hey! Hiei, Urameshi, whoever, I don't care! How do I access my spirit energy?" He grinned, thinking that the faces they must be making now were most assuredly priceless. 'Bet they never expected that from me, hehe'

The three bystanders' faces were indeed priceless. Yusuke, Hiei, and Botan had expected Kuwabara to fight without a thought or plan for pretty much the entire match- each busy concocting their own various rescue scenarios, (though Hiei's was more along the lines of getting the other two to jump in to save the oaf than actively doing the rescuing).

Surprisingly Botan- who turned out to be the 'whoever' part of Kuwabara's question- was the first to snap out of her stupor, being used to coaching new recruits in the basics of spirit energy and so much better at playing teacher than the two anti-social ones, "oh, I know! It's like when you feel ghosts, Kuwabara! Reach for that part of you and imagine it coursing through your body, then focus it into a weapon!"

She heard a "gotcha!" echo back at her and sighed, at least he had more of a fighting chance now.

"Well, that was unexpected," Yusuke half-heartedly said.

"Don't get your hopes up, detective, we'll still be the ones saving his ass in the end," Hiei grumbled. He wasn't good with surprises he should have seen coming.

Rando scoffed as he watched the human try to form his energy into something usable, "you really think that a human who hasn't used his spirit energy in a single fight can take down a demon who's been using it since day one? Don't kid yourself, it'll just make your defeat more humiliating."

"Shut up, you scumbag. I'm gonna' make you eat those words, just you wait!"

Amused more than anything at the response, the demon settled down to wait, "go ahead and try, it may make this charade of a fight at least a little more challenging for me."

'We'll just see about that, won't we, Rando,' Kuwabara thought to himself, then went back to feeling for his energy. 'Ah ha, there you are- whoa this is kinda' weird- lets take this guy out!'

"You ready?" He yelled out.

His opponent smirked, "I think the better question is, are you? But go ahead, amuse me."

Kuwabara pulled at the energy within him, forming the image of the weapon he would use, "bring it! Spirit Sword!"

At that familiar battle cry, Hiei smiled a bit- then scowled when he realized what, exactly, he was smiling about.

The teen charged at Rando wildly, slashing his new sword around like a baseball bat. It looked more like he was swinging a Nerf-sword about at the nearest Toy-R-Us with a couple of friends than actually fighting.

Hiei felt the urge to bash his head immediately on the nearest wall; he'd again forgotten how untrained Kuwabara was at the beginning. They, (a.k.a. he and Kurama), would have to start from scratch to get him up to Dark Tournament levels.

Despite the initial burst of strength Kuwabara had shown, he just didn't have the spirit energy required to continue like he was.

Rando was just too fast for any hits to make contact.

And then the demon went on the offensive.

Vanishing from Kuwabara's sight, Rando appeared farther away, next to one of the large pillars.

"Hey! Where'd you go?" Kuwabara shouted, huffing and trying to regain his breath, "stop hiding and fight like a real man!"

Rando's voice echoed from the area in front of Kuwabara, who jerked his head towards the sound, "you seem to be slowing down, human. How about I show you some of my moves to get you motivated, I'm starting to get bored."

"You don't scare me, I'll show you bored!" Enraged, said human again went charging off to where his enemy hid.

'Yes, come closer. It will only make this all the more agonizing for you,' Rando began his technique.

Though it was impossible to notice in the complete blackness, the shadows began to writhe.

They trailed at the ankles of the approaching human who, with his new, untrained senses couldn't detect the unusual threat. This went far beyond merely feeling the presences of ghosts and into the realm of the demons.

Kuwabara neared the pillar, Rando's taunts beckoning him forward, "I'm tired of your stupid games! Just fight already, would you?"

"Foolish human, I already made my move and you've walked right into it," Rando slashed his hands in sharp, twisting motions like he was grabbing something and the shadows at Kuwabara's feet followed suit. They fastened themselves onto Kuwabara, who cried out in shock, and lashed him to the pillar, suddenly becoming harder than the stone they'd tied him to.

"You like this one?" Rando sneered, "I was saving it for later but after all the tough talk I heard from you, I think you deserve a little demonstration!"

"Agh! Get this crap offa' me!" Kuwabara shouted, "this is not what I meant by a fair fight and you know it!"

"Ha, you're starting to piss me off, human," Rando growled, no longer smiling, "didn't anyone ever tell you that in the real world, nobody fights fair?"

"Those guys aren't real men, they don't know what it means to live honorably!" Kuwabara spat back, "you're obviously too weak to understand that and that's why you're going to lose this fight!"

It was the 'weak' comment that broke Rando's patience, "fine. I can see there's just no getting through that thick wall of stupidity with you so I'll just make this quick."

He hadn't noticed the growing concentration of spirit energy in Kuwabara's palm.

More shadows flowed up from the floor and molded into skin-piercing points, all aiming at the unprotected spots on their prisoner's body.

"I hope your life was worthwhile up until this point because it'd be terrible if you died with regrets," the shadows rushed forward, aiming to kill.

"The only one who's going to die with regrets is you!" Kuwabara shouted, and unleashed his attack towards the source of the demonic energy he'd been focusing on. The sudden burst of light shattered the shadows into dust and smashed into Rando's unprotected chest. The demon fell back to the floor, unmoving.

"Ha-ha-ha," Kuwabara gasped out, his energy depleted, "guess you forgot that light moves faster than your shadows, huh?" He began to walk back to the entrance, stumbling every few steps.

Yusuke tore his eyes away from where he'd last sensed the demonic energy emitting from Rando. Watching the weakened- and decidedly human- aura moving towards him, he waited for Kuwabara to make his way out of the darkness, (though that was in a manner of speaking, seeing as the whole place was completely black).

"I don't believe it," he mumbled to Hiei, "I thought I was supposed to be the one to take out Rando, how'd this happen?"

Hiei just shook his head, he knew the fool had his moments but this, this was... this was not good. If Yusuke didn't impress Genkai then there'd be little hope for the future. Any plan he'd had would completely unravel if Yusuke didn't receive Genkai's training.

Kuwabara was twenty feet away and about to celebrate his victory against the 'evil' demon when the shadows reappeared and stabbed him through the chest.

"Gah-uh," he involuntarily got out, blood beginning to spill over his teeth and down his chin. He fell to his knees, slowly twisting his head to the side to see what had hit him.

Rando's energy re-immerged, shooting up past what everyone had sensed from him before. He was in his true demon form now, shedding the weak human facade in his impatience. He approached the fallen teen and shot him a disparaging look, "I hope you didn't really think you'd beaten me with that feeble attack."

He ignored the angered shouts coming from Yusuke's direction and stalked up to Genkai, "I think you can clearly see who won this round so can we move on with this thing?"

She looked at him neutrally, "yes, you are the winner. Everyone who's left, head outside, we've a tournament to complete."

Botan looked up in outrage from where she'd been frantically trying to close the gaping wound in Kuwabara's chest. Thankfully it had gone through his lung and not the heart or there'd be no hope at all for the boy, "How can you just stand there and do nothing when that demon just killed an innocent boy!"

Yusuke, who'd been on the floor next to his fallen friend and staring brokenly at the blood freely flowing, woke up at those words. He shot up off his feet with a vicious expression on his face and was about to let his anger out on all in the vicinity when Hiei's hand reach out and halted him.

"What the hell do you want, Hiei?" He snarled out, ready to break the other's hand to get to Genkai.

Hiei threw a glare his way that promised severe punishment the next time they sparred and returned his attention to the calm spirit master, "you may act impartial but the fact is that you know some healing arts." Genkai acknowledged this fact with a raised brow and narrowed eyes but otherwise said nothing.

Hiei continued, "so unless there's a reason to conserve your energy, there's a foolish human who is currently bleeding out on your floor right now who could use those skills."

Yusuke shoved Hiei's hand off him and stalked up to Genkai, "look. Either you heal my friend or I kick your ass and forget this whole stupid tournament! What's it gonna' be, huh?"

She snorted and stomped out the remains of her second cigarette, "listen kid, right now you're nowhere near the level needed to 'kick my ass' but I'll humor you. Your demon friend here had a better argument by far."

She made her way to Kuwabara's side and knelt next to the quickly tiring Botan who sighed in clear relief when the other stepped in to help.

Together they sealed up the hole until all that was left was a jagged white scar.

"Whew, glad that's over with," Botan smiled, "don't worry, Yusuke, he's good as new and he'll be up in a jiffy!"

"Thanks, Botan," Yusuke replied offhandedly, "but right now I gotta' bone to pick with this Rando bastard, so lets just get on with it."

He turned to Hiei, "you comin'? I know you don't exactly like Kuwabara but I figured you'd like to see me take down my first real demon, especially when it's that arrogant sonova'bitch."

"Hn, I suppose this could be considered your first real challenge- seeing as that pathetic bat-demon hardly counted- to see if you're ready for the real world," Hiei derisively intoned, "but don't get too full of yourself, this Rando is nothing compared to what's out there."

The wide doors opened and their group, minus Genkai, flinched at the comparatively bright light that hit their eyes. Rando stood calmly outside, waiting mockingly for her to take the lead. It was time for the finals of the Genkai tournament to begin.

Yusuke stared the demon down, brown eyes flashing with barely contained fury ready to be sent Rando's way.

He'd never killed anyone before, but he didn't think he'd mind much if he started with this one.


	11. Chapter 11

Botan watched uneasily as Yusuke stalked off, Genkai and Hiei trailing in his wake.

The normally high-spirited ferry girl worried her lower lip and turned her concerned gaze towards the teen lying prone on the floor next to her. His even breathing, finally calm from the shallow gasps that had come from the pierced lung he'd received, distracted her from her agitated introspection. Botan, as the 'Grim Reaper', wasn't so used to the new body she'd been given to help Yusuke better on his assignments. Breathing in particular was a novel experience. That wasn't to say she'd never had a human body before, but it had been awhile...

She was brought out of her rapidly scattering thoughts by a sudden noise.

A deep, scraping echo reverberated out as Yusuke shoved open the massive wooden doors of the building and the three fighters left, though they were thoughtful enough to leave the source of light behind for the two remaining.

Botan sighed, "I guess it's just you and me then..."

She saw the small figure of Yusuke stop briefly to glare at Rando- though she didn't think any words were exchanged- before the group set off towards the next fighting arena.

Giving up on tracking the receding forms, she turned her focus back to Kuwabara and grumbled dejectedly, "I hope you wake up soon."

The wind blew hollow within the empty building from where it entered through the open door. Botan shivered, clutching her knees to her chest. It was only Yusuke's second case and already things had gone wrong, she could only imagine what future cases would be like.

The walk to the last area of the tournament was oddly familiar to two individuals. It seemed reminiscent of the one Yusuke and Hiei had taken when the detective was informed of his...unique heritage. Although, whereas in the first case Yusuke was more curious about the demon at his side, nothing Rando did or said would prevent his end at the furious boy's hands.

Rando, it could be noted, had taken an unaffected look to himself. He obviously wasn't too concerned with the outcome of a battle with another human.

Yusuke really hoped they got to the next damn place soon because he didn't think he could take staring at Rando's smug face another minute- and he was getting sick of all these retarded forest hikes! Couldn't the old bat keep all her buildings in one damn place!

Hiei glanced over at the livid detective, whose aura kept flaring at random intervals according to his emotions, and fought to keep a smirk off his face. No doubt Yusuke would take it the wrong way and turn his ire on him. That wouldn't do.

Of course, Yusuke fought much better when he let his emotions take him under. The Genkai of the future had been correct in telling Toguro to kill someone the boy cared about, (and Hiei scowled inwardly, though he couldn't say why). it was a surefire way to get him motivated.

Another energy flare came from Yusuke- and either Hiei or Genkai was going to have to break him of that because it wouldn't do to have his every emotion visible for all to pick up on- and Hiei brought himself back to the present. He could see the earlier battle between Rando and Kuwabara had the other demon arrogant and feeling assured of his victory.

'Too bad the detective isn't just another human,' and this time Hiei did smirk.

They arrived at a wide, open moor with a disturbing psychic presence to it, something bad had happened here. Hiei snorted, unimpressed. Well, something bad by human standards.

Genkai stopped on a relatively dry patch of land and gestured at the final two contenders to make their way further ahead. Shockingly, despite the cold water and soggy ground everywhere, Yusuke went without complaint.

Hiei stayed a few paces from the old psychic, watching her face for any sign of what she could be thinking.

Genkai betrayed nothing, the same disdainfully blank expression remained plastered to her face. She waited calmly for Yusuke and Rando to have their little stare down before beginning the fight, "final round of the tournament, begin!"

Yusuke grunted in surprise when Rando took off in his direction with a direct attack. He grinned, too bad for Rando he'd been training with Hiei- speed demon extraordinaire- for the past few weeks.

He twisted to the side so that the demon's attack barely missed his mid-section and quickly aimed a knee for the other's back, scoring a hit.

Rando flew forwards but caught himself before he hit the ground, flipping around and landing to face Yusuke.

"So I see you're not as pathetic as the others in this tournament," Rando said, sneering, "maybe I'll actually have some fun before I kill you."

Yusuke glared, good humor gone at that reminder, "we'll see who kills who, asshole!"

The teen went on the offensive, dashing towards his opponent and cocking back a fist loaded with spirit energy.

Rando lost his smirk and readied himself quickly for a countermove. A split second later and Yusuke was upon him, teeth clenched and fist flying for the other's face.

The demon tilted his head, barely missing getting a blow that probably would have knocked him out. He growled. It seemed he might actually have to take the child seriously.

Barely dodging another few vicious strikes, Rando jumped back out of range. He had a few techniques in mind that would be making life very uncomfortable for the detective.

"Huh?" Yusuke stumbled when his opponent suddenly vanished, twisting his head sharply around in an effort to find the demon.

"Where the hell did you go? I'm not done kickin' your ass yet!" Yusuke shouted. He spotted the demon out further into the moor and clenched his fists tightly before charging off to resume the battle.

Despite the enraged teen coming his way, Rando appeared especially calm, arrogant smile painting his lips.

Yusuke could care less how calm the bastard was and launched himself at Rando with all the force of a speeding freight train.

His fist met an invisible barrier with a noise like a thunderclap, a sickening crack sounding simultaneously.

"Ahhhgh!"

Yusuke's scream sounded soon after and the boy fell to his knees, clutching his broken wrist in his remaining hand. Hiei winced at that noise, it sounded too much like the times the detective had had an arm carelessly broken at the hands of both Toguro and Sensui. But, Hiei knew, if Yusuke could make it through those times, he could survive this too.

Rando sneered and walked up to the huddled form of the detective, ready to mock the other for his weakness.

"You're really just making this too easy," the hunched form stopped shaking, muscles visibly tensing at the barb, "please at least last as long as the other human."

He stood above the teen and held out a hand, forming what appeared to be fire from his energy in preparation of his finishing move.

"Spirit Gun!"

A blue flare of spirit energy shot out from Yusuke's index finger, whose glow he'd been hiding with his bowed form. It hit the demon point blank and threw them both back in opposite directions with its force.

Yusuke fell into one of the many mud puddles, yelping in surprise at being thrown by his own attack. Rando, aside from a cry of pain, made no noise when he impacted the ground and fell into unconsciousness.

Yusuke groaned and pulled himself to his feet, grumbling at his muddy clothes- still holding his broken wrist delicately to keep it from shifting when he moved.

"Hah, didn't expect that one did'ya?" He walked towards the fallen demon, careful to keep his distance lest he have his own tactic used against him. He didn't fancy winding up like Kuwabara very much.

Rando pulled himself back to consciousness and cracked his eyes open in a hate-filled glare.

"Now you're really beginning to piss me off, human," He growled out and rose to his feet, swaying unsteadily for a moment.

"Heh. Hey, it's what I'm best at," Yusuke said, though the grin on his face was anything but nice.

Rando grinned back just as venomously, "well, we'll see how good you are against this technique." He began focusing his energy and, with a dark smile, plunged his hands into the ground before him.

Yusuke narrowed his eyes and went on the defensive, jumping back a few paces and glancing around for the threat. He didn't look down, though, and was completely thrown off guard when the soggy earth began to hiss and steam.

The water had begun to boil and froth up from the ground in a wide area surrounding Yusuke. The small amount that splashed onto his shoe and melted the first layer through was enough to have him stumbling back from the edges in alarm.

"What the-" Yusuke was cut off when, with a sharp gesture from Rando, the water surged up around him, hot enough to scald flesh.

"How do you like this one, boy?" Rando shouted out sadistically, "have fun trying to dodge it, I hear getting burned this way is absolutely agonizing. You'll have to tell me how it feels!"

'Ohcrapcrapcrap-crap!' Yusuke's mind scrambled as he looked for an escape from the circle of water about to engulf him.

He saw Rando's eyes gleaming in anticipation through the water wall and hastily brought his arm up just as the demon began to slash his hands towards Yusuke.

'I hope this works!' Fixing his aim on the demon in front of him, Yusuke desperately shouted his signature move again.

"Spirit Gun!"

His shot burst straight through the boiling water, smashing into Rando's chest and sending him careening off his feet into a tree. The demon grunted on impact and clutched his hands around his front, flinching at the energy burns left there.

Thankfully that was enough. Rando's control was immediately interrupted and his hold on the water was released, letting it splash harmlessly to the ground.

'Dammit, that was close,' Yusuke thought, staring warily at the still hot water at his feet, though it was no longer dangerously so.

However, he was done playing now. He stalked up to Rando, glaring in warning and holding a glowing finger out as a threat for the other to stay down this time.

The demon glared up weakly through his messy red bangs at the detective. When he coughed, blood flecked out onto his front, staining the skin down his chin and dripping onto his throat and chest.

"I'm... not done...yet," He gasped out, panting. The two spirit guns had had a more powerful punch to them than he'd expected, and it was costing him.

"Maybe," Yusuke growled, "but can you take another hit from me?"

Rando gathered his energy and vanished from his seated position, tackling Yusuke onto his back.

"Ugh," Yusuke felt his head smack the ground with a jarring impact and tried to focus his spinning vision on the demon pinning him down. He almost wished he hadn't when he looked up to find five inhumanly sharp claws speeding towards his vulnerable throat.

Only a swift movement to the right saved his neck from being torn out and losing his head. The claws gouged into the ground and drove themselves down about an inch. This didn't slow Rando's attack and his other hand copied the firsts' move. Yusuke wasn't being pinned as thoroughly, though, and he frantically threw his arm out in a block.

Blood flew from the deep wounds gained on Yusuke's forearm and he cried out in pain. Rando grinned widely at the sight before wrenching his claws to the side and out of Yusuke's fragile flesh.

"Hah, now that's both of your arms injured, it's going to be fun seeing you use that Spirit Gun without them," The demon mocked cruelly, blood-tipped hands raised in preparation for another strike.

"That was nothing!" Yusuke bit out. Before Rando could react, the detective brought his bloodied arm up and let the energy that had been building rupture out into the demon's shocked face.

When the demon fell back this time, he didn't get back up. Being headless will do that to you.

Yusuke groaned and rolled to his side, hefting himself up after a few moments. He stared vacantly at the body of his opponent, unsure of how to feel about what he'd done. Wanting to kill someone and actually killing them were two entirely different things, after all.

'Doesn't matter,' He decided, expression smoothing, 'the bastard would have killed a bunch more people if I hadn't gotten rid of him.'

That didn't stop the uncomfortable aching feeling roiling around in his stomach.

He began walking back to Genkai and Hiei, his arms hanging useless at his sides. The burst of adrenaline that had allowed him to get that final shot in had worn off and he found he couldn't lift them even if he'd wanted to.

He cracked a grin when he noticed Hiei's subtle expression of concern, though he was sure the other was trying to hide it from everyone. Hell, even Genkai looked pleased at his victory, her stern look faded a little and a small smile gracing her lips.

"So... guess this means I won the tournament, right?" Yusuke said, almost breathlessly.

"Yes, Dimwit, you won the tournament, congratulations," Genkai assured.

"Hn. That was still a pathetic fight, Detective," Hiei said, scowling, "I saw at least three ways you could have ended it without having to get your arms broken and bloodied in the process."

He sniffed condescendingly while Yusuke yelped in indigence and tried to protest, "hopefully, your training with Genkai will break you of your poor habits so that won't become a reoccurring theme in your fights."

Botan and Kuwabara finally arrived, huffing slightly when they finally slowed to a halt. They'd been running in hopes of catching the fight before it ended, not that it did them much good.

"What, you mean it's already over?"

Ohh, and I was really hoping to see Yusuke's first fight."

Kuwabara and Botan each whined respectively when they saw the scene before them.

Then Kuwabara grumbled about how annoying Yusuke was for a moment. But, after seeing Yusuke's state- and wincing at the ugly looking cuts and bruises marking the teen- he thanked Yusuke for avenging him. Though he kept sending squeamish looks towards the beheaded demon laying farther out in the field.

"So we can go home now, right?" Yusuke said, eyes wide and hopeful as he glanced around at the others for confirmation.

It was Genkai who answered, though Yusuke had already guessed what it was going to be when he saw Hiei's telling smirk.

"Nice try, Slacker, you're staying here. Everyone else can go home," Genkai smirked widely. She was going to enjoy whipping this smart-mouth into shape.

"Erm, for how long am I staying, exactly?" Yusuke questioned, though he had a feeling he really didn't want to know.

"I've got your sorry hide for six months," His new teacher sadistically informed, "so you'd better hope you brought your toothbrush with you, because it's going to be a long while before you see the light of civilization again."

Yusuke blinked, thought about how long six months was, gave up trying, and fainted in an exhausted heap on the ground. He'd deal with this crap tomorrow.

"Hn," Hiei grunted, looking at the passed out teen, though he directed his words towards Genkai, "he's all yours now, I hope you can handle his smartass attitude for that amount of time."

He turned and flickered away. Yusuke was in good- well, capable anyways- hands for the moment. He could focus on the other pressing matter to attend to; his sister needed to be rescued, like hell he was leaving her with those bastard humans for another minute.


	12. Chapter 12

"Thank you for allowing me to stay at your temple, Master Genkai, I hope that I can repay you in some way."

Hiei watched while his sister- who was still unaware, even in the previous timeline, of their relationship- made nice with her new guardian.

He nodded his own thanks, as he wasn't one to actually voice any form of gratitude, to Genkai. The old psychic responded back with a dry nod before leading Yukina away.

Yukina smiled back at him, calling out her thanks, and he felt a suspicious ache form in the vicinity of his heart. It was a severe relief that she was out of harms way, both from the demon world- and the Koorime who lived there- and the human who'd captured her.

It had been rather more simple than he'd expected to rescue his sister from the greedy human bastard.

Though, when he'd first considered his rescue plans, they had included the Toguro Brothers being at the mansion...

...It had taken Hiei nearly two hours of running to reach Torukane's stronghold. He was moving on autopilot, his mind focused elsewhere. Like the fact that he was nowhere near strong enough to take down the Toguro Brothers- and they would have no reason to spare him if he was caught. Fear, oily black and writhing, snaked around the corners of his thoughts, taunting him with the knowledge that he was acting foolishly; his actions could damn the whole world if he let them.

But he was nothing if not stubborn, and his doubts were pushed aside for more strategic thinking.

Halfway up the mountain and Hiei stopped suddenly. A devious, (some might say delighted, even), smirk formed on his normally impassive features.

Officially, the mission to rescue his sister wasn't supposed to be given to the detective until after both his training and the Saint Beasts mission.

That was six-months away.

The Toguro Brothers wouldn't be waiting for him in the mansion because Torukane hadn't hired them yet. He only had to deal with weak humans and their toy guns; and Hiei could dodge bullets very easily.

The demon continued on, footsteps lighter and mind less burdened. Another thirty-minutes after avoiding cameras and trip mines and he arrived at the manicured edges of the estate. He unwrapped the Jagan and focused to see if his guess had been correct. Nothing. Only humans and a few weak demons trapped in the lower levels of the stronghold were at the base. There was no sign of the energy that, at this point, could bring him to his knees with its strength. He could only feel the guards standing at attention at the entrance to his sister's cell- which appeared to him as a void because of the wards pasted on the walls.

The disgusting human himself moved towards the void- then disappeared.

Torukane was in there with her. Hiei silently snarled, baring his teeth in his hatred. But he couldn't interfere until the human left. If he showed himself the bastard might send hunters after him and he- a scream pierced the air, echoing painfully loud from Yukina's tower cell.

Hiei was moving before he knew what was happening. He was through the flimsy door entering into the mansion- the same he'd used in the future- and racing through the gaudy hallways when his mind caught up with his body.

(What am I doing, this could ruin everything, the Dark Tournament!) Everything scattered in the wake of his sister's wounded cries.

He was just starting to reconsider his actions when he arrived at the hallway to her cell. He could no longer hear the screams; they had died down to whimpers.

A laugh came, sounding from the disgusting human who had Yukina imprisoned. Hiei bounded down the hallway, eyes narrowing when he felt the remnants of the unnatural chill produced from a Koorime's energy.

He flung open the cell door, letting it smash against the wall and startling the guards within.

And there he was, scrounging around on the floor for the precious jewels his sister had just forcibly produced. The guards stared in shock, not quite understanding what they were seeing. Yukina had frozen when Hiei had arrived; she knew he was a demon. What she didn't know was why he was there. Burns from paper wards covered her wrists in bright red welts. Hiei nearly lost himself to a white-noise rage at the sight. He didn't; Yukina could never see that side to him.

Torukane grunted when he noticed the expressions on the others' faces and turned around.

"What the- who the hell are you?" He didn't get to say much else before Hiei was upon them. The two guards and their employer were knocked out in a nanosecond and then Hiei was standing alone before his sister.

"Please, don't hurt me," she whispered, twin red eyes wide with fear and hands clasped defensively to her chest.

Hiei's expression softened and he took a step back, reducing the malevolent aura he'd been exuding, "I won't hurt you, I'm here to get you out of this place."

"What? I don't understand- who are you?" She dropped her arms to her side once the threat seemed to pass and her curiosity won out. She seemed resigned though, as if she could already see the outcome of this confrontation.

"I have been staying in the human world for a while, near this forest," Hiei began slowly, again not sure exactly what his story would be, "I heard the screams when investigating the area and saw that you were being tortured by that-" he glared briefly at the unconscious body of Torukane, "-human and decided to put a stop to it."

"But why, you don't even know me?" His twin looked like she wanted- so badly- to believe that she'd finally be freed from her prison, but her knowledge of the selfish nature of demons wouldn't let her. For all she knew Hiei could be after her for the same reason Torukane was and she'd just end up back in a cell, torture continuing where it had left off.

He frowned as if reading her thoughts, "I have no use for your tears. If I'd wanted riches I could be back in the Demon World, robbing some fool blind."

"I see..." She trailed off, still unable to trust his word. She'd been introduced to the horrors of humanity and demons by leaving the sheltered world of the Koorime. Trust would have to be built back up, along with her confidence in a person's capacity for kindness.

Hiei shook his head, she obviously didn't see, "I can bring you back to the Demon World if you wish, or leave you here. It's your decision."

A thought occurred to him and he tilted his head contemplatively, yes that could work... His gaze refocused on Yukina.

"I have another option," He said, motioning her to begin heading towards the exit, the sight of Torukane made the murderous impulses hard to keep at bay and he didn't need to give Koenma an actual reason to have him killed, "tell me, have you ever heard of the human psychic, Genkai?"

She cautiously moved to the door, keeping him in her line of sight even when at his side, " yes, I'm sure many demons have. She's known to kill any demons that get in her way. But what does this have to do with where I go?"

"What you've heard is only partially correct," Hiei smirked slightly, "the old hag is much more of a do-gooder than she'd like to have others think."

He looked at Yukina seriously, "if you went to her, she would take you in and protect you while you decide on your next move."

Yukina stared at him, trying to quell the surprise and shock that flared briefly through her. This was one of the most unexpected rescues she could have imagined. It wasn't a very difficult decision to make. Her people would never accept her back anyways, and she doubted very much that she could survive on her own in the demon world for too long.

They'd made it outside and she turned to face him, "I don't know how I can properly thank you for saving me," She smiled hesitantly, "and I've decided to go to Genkai's as you suggested."

Hiei returned the smile, hidden tension fading at his sister's words, "Then come, we should hurry before the humans wake up."

She nodded but paused before reaching him, finally getting a good look at the person who'd rescued her. Her eyes widened in wonder, "you seem... familiar, have I met you somewhere before?"

Hiei flinched. He'd desperately hoped she wouldn't ask that again, it made lying to her face a very difficult task, "no. This is the first time you and I have talked. You must be mistaken."

She felt an ache prickle through her heart at that answer for some reason, but quickly suppressed the feeling and a moment later they left her prison behind...

He was thankful Yukina didn't ask too many questions on the journey over. It was difficult enough just being so close to what he'd spent so much of his life looking for, even if he'd already found her in the future.

When Hiei arrived back at the temple, carrying his sister the entire way, he flared his energy to let Genkai know of his presence. He felt the old psychic's annoyed aura moving towards him the second she knew he was there.

Hiei and Yukina stood at the top of the stairway, waiting while Yukina glanced around in curiosity at what could become her new home.

When Genkai arrived the harsh look she reserved for those who'd interrupted her tortu- er, training of Yusuke dimmed into one of interest when she saw the ice-apparition at Hiei's side.

"You weren't kidding about the Koorime I see," She walked over and looked up at the twins analytically, "well, come on kid, lets get you set up in the room you'll be staying in and caught up on what rules you'll be expected to follow while you're here."

Yukina was startled at the speed in which she'd been taken in, "um, Master Genkai, how did you know what I was here for?"

Genkai snorted and turned a pointed look Hiei's way. He glared back but his face was kind- well, as kind as he could make it- when he focused on Yukina, "I had heard your screams before and investigated. When I saw what was happening I asked Genkai about keeping you here temporarily; she accepted."

Genkai smirked at the clever lie, Hiei had just told her what was happening mere moments before they'd arrived through telepathy. He was lucky she was going to play along- and that she hadn't decided to fry his brain when she'd felt his energy probing at her mind, disrespectful little brat.

She made sure he knew that sooner or later he'd be telling her the whole story and left with Yukina, tossing out a suggestion before he could vanish, "the dimwit is training in the main hall, go make sure he hasn't taken a break while I've been gone."

Hiei didn't answer but she could feel his energy moving towards where she'd left Yusuke.

Yusuke grunted when he felt another droplet of sweat trail up his face, which wouldn't make much sense unless you could see that he was currently upside-down- balancing on a fingertip enveloped in bright blue spirit energy at the top of an iron spike.

'Stupid old hag thinks she can just leave me here all day, this is so stupid- freakin' waste of my time- ugh!'

His concentration faltered when he felt a cold chill sweep up his spine as a presence entered the room. A second later and a familiar figure appeared in his line of vision.

Yusuke blinked, thinking that maybe he was finally seeing things after being upside-down for so long, "hey Hiei, come to relieve me of my misery after ditching me here while I was unconscious and at the mercy of that old, sadistic witch and-"

"You're rambling, stop it." Hiei glared, un-amused at the detective's whining.

"Che, sure, whatever. That's gotta' be the worst greeting I've ever heard," Yusuke grumbled, he enjoyed whining very much, thank you. He especially thought that after what he'd been through he deserved a damn good whine.

Speaking of which, "do you even know what she's put me through since I've been here? I almost wish I was back home getting the crap beaten out of me by you."

Hiei sneered and went to lean against the wall in front of Yusuke, "then obviously I need to up the ante the next time we fight if you feel I've been too easy on you."

"Hah, fine. It'd be a lot more fun than what she's been having me do," Yusuke grinned and then thought of something, "hey, so what are you even doing here? I kinda' doubt it's because you missed me."

Yusuke watched as Hiei's face did a funny transformation at the question, going through several halted emotions before settling on annoyed, "you will be having a new house guest at the temple, treat her with the utmost respect and I won't be forced to kill you."

"Erm..." Yusuke had to think about what Hiei meant by those words, which was harder than it sounded what with all the blood flowing to straight to his head, "wait-a-sec, you brought a girl here?"

Hiei's face fell when he saw where Yusuke's thoughts were headed.

"So who is she?" Yusuke began teasingly, recognizing a sore subject for his companion, "your girlfriend?"

Hiei froze, feeling a bit sick at that suggestion, "no you fool. She is not my girlfriend!"

Yusuke snickered, almost forgetting the pain he was in at his newfound interest: teasing Hiei about this mysterious girl.

"So if she's not your girlfriend is she your lover, mistress- are you getting engaged? When's the wedding? Hell, don't tell me she's your mother or something."

At each suggestion the fire-demon seemed to get more incensed until, at the last few guesses, he snapped, "dammit, detective, she's my sister!"

Yusuke stopped, not really believing his needling had worked, "no shit? I didn't know you had a sister. What's her name?"

Hiei sighed in defeat. It had to happen sometime, he supposed. Otherwise the fool would just keep on making stupid comments and questions about her and that wouldn't be good for keeping their relationship a secret.

"Her name is Yukina. I found her imprisoned by a human who was using her for her tears." Hiei clenched a fist at the thought. It still bothered him that she'd had to go through that all for the sake of looking for her 'long lost twin brother'.

"What do her tears have anything to do with it?"

The question brought him out of his reflections, "she is a Koorime- an ice-apparition- whose tears turn into priceless gems that greedy bastards will try anything to get their hands on."

Yusuke frowned while he equated gems, tears, and 'greedy bastards willing to do anything to acquire said tears'. Everything added up and painted an unsettling picture in the delinquent's mind.

"How'd you know where she was? Is she okay?" Yusuke asked quietly. The severity of the situation had him toning down his previous immature attitude.

"Hn, she's fine. And I knew where she was when I heard the screams while I was in the surrounding forest." Hiei grimaced, grudgingly giving the other an answer when he heard the sincerity in Yusuke's voice.

He turned a suddenly humorless glare on Yusuke, "she does not know of our relation to each other. Keep it that way."

"Wh-what?" Yusuke yelped in surprise, nearly losing his balance. This was certainly the last thing he'd expected to hear, "what do you mean she doesn't know about your relationship and why wouldn't you tell her?"

Yusuke's outburst had little effect on Hiei's demeanor, "I meant exactly as I said, detective. You are not to tell her that she is my sister. She and I were separated at birth. All she knows is that her twin is out there and that she wants to find him."

His glare sharpened and Yusuke recoiled, "that is all she will ever know."

Yusuke had the brief thought- as he wavered from his precarious position on the iron spike- that it was reallydamn hardto have an argument when one was upside down, before refocusing on the conversation, "fine. I'm not gonna' pretend to understand why you won't tell your sister who you are but I'll respect your decision."

He sent a somber look at Hiei who, when seeing it, couldn't seem meet his eyes, but nodded his thanks anyways.

Yusuke sighed, knowing the conversation was over but making one last effort, "I'm not trying to butt in or anything, but maybe you should ask her how she feels about that and then make up your mind."

Hiei ignored the suggestion, "just get back to your training." He darted out, leaving Yusuke to his thoughts.

Genkai had gotten Yukina settled and was back at the entrance to her temple to talk to Hiei. A variation of the same conversation he'd had with Yusuke transpired, though with less threats, and Genkai was satisfied at the answer.

Hiei had one more request before leaving, "Yukina is capable of being an adept healer, if you can spare the time she would be a much more easygoing student than the detective."

Genkai eyed him with strong amusement. He had to be the single most doting brother this side of the world, as much as he tried so hard to hide it, "I'll see what I can do. I suppose I could use the extra help around for emergencies."

Hiei's nod was more of a bow this time in his gratitude, as he vanished from the property.

Some miles away and Hiei appeared on the roof of a small, two-story house. He watched the person practicing his energy manipulation in silence, waiting for the opportune moment to- as Yusuke would say- 'scare the crap out of him'. Seeing Yusuke training had reminded him of another human who would need to be prepared for what lay ahead. Kuwabara might not be high on Hiei's list of favorite people, but he knew that somehow the fool would find his way neck-deep in whatever problem Yusuke happened to involve himself in.

It went against Hiei's unspoken honor code to leave the teen defenseless- especially when it affected the whole group. Anyways, he didn't have much else to do for the next six months and had decided that training Kuwabara was the most productive way to pass the time.

Things were working out so nicely that Hiei was beginning to feel paranoid- well, more so than usual- and he kept looking for the moment everything fell apart. He was used to doing things alone but preventing the coming apocalypse seemed a bit more than what he usually had to deal with.

He frowned. At the least he was hoping Kurama would join them soon; It was difficult going so long without an intelligent conversation.

He noticed Kuwabara about to stop his training and decided it was time to step in. No way was that human having a break now, he would be making the other take his practice a little more seriously, like 'the world is ending in a demon apocalypse' serious. Which it would be If Kuwabara couldn't defend himself better.

He jumped to the ground to confront the other.

Kuwabara sighed in relief as he finally dropped the meditation pose and let go of his spirit energy. He'd been training all day and was exhausted by the continuous use. It'd be all worth it though to see the look on Urameshi's face when he showed the other his new techniques.

"Hehehe, I bet he'll be super impressed at my badass spirit sword!" He grinned in triumph.

"The only thing that will be impressed by that pathetic weapon is your cat."

"Aiieee!" Kuwabara let out a- totally manly- shriek of terror at the figure that stood behind him.

"Che, would you keep it down?" The figure, now identified as the demon, Hiei, said. The demon was currently looking around the yard disdainfully as if it had personally offended him to be there, "it's no wonder your species is so easy to kill off when you make such an annoying racket."

"Ergh, who asked you, ya' little half-pint?" Kuwabara growled out, brandishing his spirit sword at the decidedly apathetic demon.

"Your blade skills resemble that of an infant swinging around a chew toy, it's a disgrace to all those who use the sword," Hiei snorted condescendingly and Kuwabara felt his anger growing.

He didn't have time to argue, though, when Hiei swiftly drew his own sword and attacked.

"What the heck?"

Kuwabara spent the next hour hastily dodging and parrying Hiei's attacks before the other suddenly halted his assault and reappeared at the edge of the yard. He calmly sheathed his sword and watched the teen collapse on his back to the ground, spirit energy absorbing back into his body.

"You've improved. Barely. I'll keep returning until you stop making a complete fool of yourself." He vanished from the area and Kuwabara was left feeling very confused and mildly irritated.

"Stupid Shrimp, I'll get you next time," He mumbled, eyes closed and body feeling like it had all the consistency of Jello- the strawberry kind, of course. He and Urameshi would be having a long talk about who the other associated with when he was finished with Genkai's training.

"Just as soon as I can move my arms again."


	13. Chapter 13

A soft plume of smoke drifted absently towards the ceiling, a thin trail leading down and connecting to a cigarette. Shizuru's attention idled between the smoke and the second story window, or rather, beyond it to the small backyard and the two currently occupying it.

The sight of a short, black-haired boy with incredibly spiky hair beating the crap out of her baby brother made her feel glad for the high fence separating their house from the neighbors- who were, at times, too nosy for their own good.

She wasn't quite sure where Kuwabara had gotten such a realistic Light-Saber, (was it called that? She could never keep up with all the new fads these days), from or how much the short kid's sword must have cost, but she was sure she didn't want to know.

Kuwabara tripped and flailed, weird glowing sword-thing dissipating as he tried to gain his balance. He saved himself and turned abruptly to yell at the one who had done the tripping, gesturing angrily at the offense.

Shizuru thought she saw a smirk and the boy must have said something instigating because it led to a renewal of their fight. She sighed and moved away, "might as well bring out drinks or something..."

Keiko held her breath as she forced her way deeper into the bowels of Yusuke's apartment.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, she gasped for air and almost gagged on the smell of week-old garbage building up in corners likely not cleaned since the last time she'd been over. She braced herself against the smell and began the battle.

Cleaning was, unfortunately, a mechanical task, allowing all the thoughts she'd been pushing aside to make themselves known. After a month of not hearing from or seeing Yusuke, (his mother being extremely unhelpful in that regard), she'd given up and figured he'd eventually come back, if only so she could nag him.

At first she'd just visited often, hoping he'd be there one morning so she could drag him off to school. When that had failed she'd talked to his mother, getting the aforementioned non-response. Even his new friend, Kuwabara, hadn't seemed to be able to answer her questions. She'd gone to see him a few times and each visit the door was answered by his older sister who would tell her he was passed out from some weird extracurricular exercise thing he had going on.

The frustrated brunette would have sighed, but that would mean breathing in the aroma of dirty dishes gaining sentience in the sink- her current workstation. She settled for frowning deeply and promising herself she'd make Yusuke regret dearly not telling her where he'd run off to for so long.

"Yusuke, you jer-" She coughed and was forced to lean out the window above the sink to reach fresh air, 'okay, bad idea, no more talking out loud to yourself.'

Yusuke sneezed and nearly got his face bitten off by an incredibly pissed off serpent- one of the many lining the pit he was stuck in.

He would have cursed but had learned early on that the snakes reacted badly to foul language and any sudden movements; well, badly for him, at least. The stupid reptiles had to be getting some kind of sick enjoyment out of his suffering- Genkai had apparently hand selected them for this part of his training.

He eyed a large one that was moving too close for his comfort and went back to leaning against the wall. Genkai had originally dropped him in the center of the mass of snakes, his only instruction to make it to the edge intact. She'd then left him to his frantic shrieks and panicked evasions to go play video games or something.

Now that he was safely, (sort of), on the other side, there was little to do but get lost in his thoughts while waiting for a rescue.

They drifted past the endless training he was undergoing, (no need to think about the pain he was sure to be in for the upcoming months), the weather, stopped momentarily on food, then moved to a more permanent topic: the new houseguest of Genkai's.

When he'd heard the word "twin" from Hiei, a picture had formed of a basically female version of the demon. This assumption had proven false, though he hadn't known that until nearly a week later when Genkai finally saw fit to introduce them. He huffed inwardly; it wasn't his fault the temple was so damn huge and there were only three people occupying the damn place. Yep, he'd just keep on telling himself that, no need to tell Hiei how long it had taken him to finally meet his sister, nope.

Also, it was really friggin' hot outside and the temptation to wipe the sweat off his brow was getting increasingly hard to ignore. One glance at the snakes watching him from their positions nixed that thought.

'Yep, back to thinking about more important things. Definitely going to pretend I'm not boiling alive in this pit.'

The sea green hair color was weird enough, though he'd seen similar on the streets of the busier cities in Japan. It was the hair mixed with the wide red eyes and small, but obvious fangs that sometime flashed when she spoke that left him with no doubt of her origins.

Still, she seemed the complete opposite in personality from Hiei and he had simply stared stupidly at her for most of the initial conversation, unable to equate the two. He had come to the conclusion that either Hiei was hiding a secret sweet side or Yukina was actually an evil ruthless demon on the inside. He'd eyed her warily after that thought; she'd smiled disarmingly in slight confusion.

"Dimwit, are you still stuck in that pit?" Genkai loomed over him on the lip of said pit.

"The hell do you mean, 'am I still stuck in this pit?' You told me to stay here once I reached the side!" Yusuke's face alternated between pissed and disbelief.

"I really didn't think you'd do it; guess I make a pretty good teacher if I can get even you to follow directions," her expression turned smug, "come along then, you've got more training. Maybe if you perform well I'll let Yukina practice her healing on you."

"Damn you, Genkai!"

Kurama smiled as he neared his house, already anticipating the joy at finally leaving Spirit World behind, (he'd never really liked that place- outside of when he was robbing it blind, then it was his favorite place in the world). If what Koenma said was true, then his mother should never realize he'd been gone for nearly two months.

He entered his home, already feeling more relaxed at the familiar settings, "Mother, I'm back!"

"Oh, Shuichi, how was school?"

He allowed his mother to dote on him for a few more moments, simply enjoying the fact that she was in such good health. He spent the rest of the day being the model son and not letting her do anything more strenuous than lifting a teacup, (filled with the most delicious tea he could possibly brew- which was pretty damn good, mind you), to her mouth.

She finally pushed him away lightheartedly, "alright, alright, Shuichi. I've never felt so pampered! You're going to spoil me at this rate. Go get ready for bed, you have school tomorrow."

"You could never be pampered enough, Mother," Kurama smiled but, after a final hug, departed to his room.

Softly closing the door a few minutes later, after he'd finished getting ready for bed, Kurama turned off the light and sat at his slightly dusty desk. Everything was as he'd left it- nearly empty and almost painfully spotless. He hadn't planned on ever making it back there, after all- and he simply stared at the perfect bed and organized knickknacks before sighing and leaning back in the chair.

His gaze thoughtful, Kurama dragged a hand lightly through his hair, coming away with a delicate flower whose slim green stem grew until it wound around his fingers and spilled over his palm. Its soft white petals glowed and reflected on his eyes, the emotion they held earlier for his mother faded to nothing.

When Koenma had told him of his punishment for using the mirror, he had felt incredible relief. A few years helping the spirit detective with his work was practically a gift. He'd be able to train his returning powers and- he could admit, at least to himself- ease some of the boredom a human life brought him.

'But, this situation has left me curious,' his mind flashed to a certain fire-demon, 'he has changed- subtly, and I doubt anyone else would notice if they weren't looking- since we last talked. What caused it?'

"I guess I'll just have to find out, I wonder how long it will take me to unravel this mystery," the former thief grinned wryly, "I can't very well have my problem solving skills getting rusty during my vacation in the human world, can I?"

The flower was slipped back into his hair and he went to his bed, promising himself he would consider the situation more in tomorrows light.

"I hear you've lost the Koorime, Torukane. How ever did you manage that?"

Fat lips pulled back in a growl and Torukane gripped his smoldering cigar tightly in anger, "yeah... yeah you heard right."

He turned beady eyes towards another screen than the one he was talking to, "but that doesn't matter, I have the bastard who did it on camera and he's gonna' wish he'd never been born when I get through with him. And then I'll have my Koorime back and we'll be back where we started: making money."

Sakyo hid a sly smile behind his wine glass as he watched the recording play across the other screen, "and how, exactly, will you be tracking him down, old friend?"

Torukane grinned sadistically, "I've called in a couple of guys who say they have the skills I need."

His grin stretched, "they call themselves the Toguro Brothers and they specialize in this sort of thing. I believe you've heard of them?"

"I have. Congratulations, I hear they are the absolute best at what they do. I'm sure you'll have your Koorime back in no time, and the money you owe me will be quickly and cleanly paid off."

"Heh, don't you worry about your money. I'll call you later."

Sakyo closed the vid-screen and looked over his shoulder, further into the room, "well, you heard him, Toguros, you two have an ice-maiden to fetch."

The shadows shifted. Toguro smiled at his employer and pushed himself off the back wall he'd been leaning on. Nodding briefly in acknowledgement, he turned and sauntered out the door, his brother clinging to his shoulder and snickering in quiet hysterics.


	14. Chapter 14

Kuwabara winced and carefully finished taping the bandage over his shin. He'd scrapped it up during the final hour of his daily torture a-la sadistic demon and was only now free to do a damage count.

Hiei had vanished as usual, but he thought there might have been an indication of approval somewhere in his barely-there goodbye.

The former delinquent (Hey, it's not like he had the energy to invest in anything but training- "Shut up, Urameshi! I am totally still best fighter at Sarayashiki!") Put the first-aid box back in the cabinet and sat down with the plate his sister had left out for him earlier. Thankfully, Shizuru recognized just how starved the training made him afterwards and always left him a meal in the fridge to devour.

The forkful of spaghetti was just barely shoved passed his lips when he was hit by a double-whammy of both terrible cold and stomach-turning nausea that sent him reeling in his mind.

Though in reality he simply sat frozen in place.

He realized somewhere outside his thoughts that he must look pretty ridiculous.

It was like his ghost sensing but a thousand times worse. Kuwabara's fight or flight instincts went into overdrive but he couldn't make himself put the fork down or, or do anything except sit there. He suddenly knew how an antelope must feel in the presence of a lion.

The feeling prey gets when the predator has its sights set on it.

An eternity seemed to pass. The pressure increasing slowly on Kuwabara was maddening.

'What is this? I- I can't breathe!'

The intense scrutiny passed then. Kuwabara let the fork drop from numb fingers and gasped shallowly, clutching at his chest above the heart.

He scrambled to his feet and dashed to the window. Whatever that had been was caused by someone (or someone-s, plural) who gave off the same energy as Hiei and Rando did.

Demons.

But the sky was clear and the setting sun shown red on the rooftops of the houses that made up his neighborhood.

He drew all the blinds in the house and locked himself in his room. He had the vague hope that Shizuru wouldn't be too angry about the plate of spaghetti left out on the table, or the forkful he'd let splatter on the floor.

'Urameshi comes home tomorrow, I'll let him deal with the freaky monsters.' Kuwabara clicked the window lock shut and closed the blinds, giving his backyard a paranoid look. 'Or heck, Hiei can deal with it. It was probably all his fault anyways.'

When Genkai slammed open the door to Yusuke's guest-room, intending to gleefully harass him one last time, the delinquent shocked her by already being awake.

"Thought you'd torment me on my last day, huh? Well think again!" Yusuke grinned at her unimpressed expression and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Trust me, the walk home will count as my torment well enough." His teacher aptly pointed out.

Yusuke groaned despairingly when he realized the truth of her words and followed the psychic at a trudge. He straightened somewhat when they reached the end and he noticed Yukina waiting at the door.

She smiled and bowed slightly, "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Urameshi. I hope we meet again sometime."

He nodded back a bit awkwardly, "Hey, you've been healing all my stupid injuries for months now. I think we've moved beyond the honorifics. So it's just Yusuke, you know?"

Yusuke smiled when she giggled and agreed, "And don't worry, I'll end up back here eventually. After-all, I haven't even finished my training."

Genkai scowled at Yusuke's slow pace and abruptly shoved him out the door with orders to get out of her temple, "And don't come back until you actually intend to train seriously!"

Yusuke would have responded but the door slammed shut before he could.

He made his way to the stairway and sighed, "Grandma' knows me way too well, this is way worse than any training she could imagine." So saying, he prepared himself for the pain and began to walk, wishing he at least had Kuwabara there to bitch at instead of going it alone. Hiei would be no help at all, as Yusuke was pretty sure he'd worn out the other's tolerance for his complaints the first hike.

One horrible walk and three bus stops later found Yusuke finally back in his hometown. The sun was shining and he couldn't wait to collapse in his own bed for, oh, say about a week of recuperation.

The welcome home party he came upon down the road was about the most unexpected group of people he'd ever seen.

Keiko, Kuwabara, and-

"-Hiei?"

The glare he got for that outburst was unable to quell the bewilderment Yusuke was feeling at the moment.

Before he could ask the demon when he'd decided to hang out with humans who weren't Yusuke and who were Keiko and Kuwabara, Keiko flung herself at him for a short hug.

She released him just as quickly. "Yusuke, don't you ever do that to me again, you hear? The least you could do is leave me a note telling me you'll be gone for awhile." He rubbed his neck sheepishly, trying to apologize and explain himself over her bombardment of questions- without mentioning demons or his sorta-job as spirit detective.

Kuwabara and Hiei walked up, the demon trailing grudgingly and his sour mood readily apparent.

The first thing the carrot-top did was sucker-punch Yusuke in the face- who wasn't quite prepared for the move while Keiko was distracting him. Though he did manage to turn his head to the side, lessening the blow, which turned out to be stronger than Yusuke'd expected.

"The hell was that for?" He dropped his knapsack and lunged forward to repay the hit in kind.

A short scuffle later and Kuwabara grunted when his face hit pavement, "First of all, I can't believe you left me with him of all people!" Yusuke hadn't thought Hiei's glare could get any more severe. He was wrong.

Kuwabara shoved himself up, "And secondly, I hope your training went well cus-"

Yusuke stopped that sentence flat, before Keiko could hear anything incriminating, by tackling his friend back to the pavement.

"Listen, Kuwabara. I don't want to even think about what I went through these last six months and I definitely don't want to hear your stupid complaints right now." He released the other teen, "So if you don't mind, I'm going home now. And don't bother coming over cus' I won't be answering the door."

He stalked off waving a hand at Keiko with a short "see-ya" in farewell.

Though he did throw a funny glance at Hiei as he passed, "Do I even want to know why you're here with these two?"

The demon growled, "I didn't come here to be part of a welcoming party. Talk to the Fool about it."

He walked swiftly away after that and Yusuke could tell he very badly wanted to go his normal speed. Thankfully he had enough consideration in him not to do so until he left Keiko's line of sight.

Still, "Wonder what's gotten into him." Yusuke said to Kuwabara, who had wandered up to his side in his distraction.

He didn't expect Kuwabara to also become serious.

"Listen, Urameshi," Kuwabara's focus darted towards a confused looking Keiko for a second, "Just meet up with me later at my place, ok? I'll tell you about the problem then."

He turned his head in the direction Hiei had left with an irritated look on his face, "I think he's involved somehow but he's not tellin' me anything."

Then he, too, walked off, leaving Yusuke and Keiko to watch him go.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, then:

"You have some weird friends, Yusuke."

He could only nod his agreement with her all too true statement.

Yusuke parted ways with Keiko after dodging some of her questions with vague replies and made his way home. He knew she wouldn't be satisfied with such evasiveness, but it would have to do. He really was tired after the day's events and just didn't feel up to dealing with people and their issues right then.

It was nagging him about what Hiei and Kuwabara had said, though. They hadn't been very specific but the fact that both of them were worried over the problem was pretty telling about its severity.

He huffed in frustration when the thought kept niggling at his mind and finally stopped his trek in the middle of a crosswalk.

"You better have something damn important that I'm giving up my sleep for it." He turned and headed in the opposite direction towards Kuwabara's, ignoring the honks from irritated drivers urging him to move faster.

The disgruntled teen stalked up to his friend's home intending to get some answers. He was unsurprised, however, when Hiei appeared next to him, having expected the other to pop up at some point during the walk.

"I'm not gonna' like this, am I?" Yusuke grumbled as they reached the house. Hiei's silence was all the answer he needed to know he was right. So, without further hesitation, Yusuke began pounding on the door hoping the obnoxious noise would hasten Kuwabara's steps.

It did, but the wrong Kuwabara.

"Kid, if you don't stop banging on my door I'm going to- oh, it's you two," Shizuru sighed and opened the door further, "Come on in, he's upstairs in his room."

Hiei gave a small nod and Yusuke a quick "thanks" before they headed up the stairs.

"Hey, Kuwabara!" Yusuke threw open the door, "Knock, knock!"

"Yeah, real mature, Urameshi." Kuwabara glared over at them from where he sat at his desk.

Hiei leant against the wall by the window while Yusuke took his place a few feet away. The detective then stared expectantly at the other two, "Alright, guys, what's so important I had'ta interrupt my first break in six months?"

Kuwabara shifted uncomfortably for a moment, sending an unobtrusive look towards Hiei that he thought no one noticed, "I was eating last night and the scariest thing I have ever felt hit me. I couldn't move at all; I couldn't breathe!"

He shuddered, lost in his own recollection, "It was like ice an' my stomach was feelin' like I had the flu or something."

Yusuke didn't quite get it, "Ok. So what? You forgot to pay the heating bill and you ate something funny. Why's that my problem?"

Kuwabara growled in aggravation, "Darn it, Urameshi, this is serious! It wasn't just those things it was something worse!"

The teen drew in a breath, "What I sensed, it wasn't like ghosts or nothin'." He looked up, face still somehow comical in its humorless veneer, "I sensed demons. The strongest demons I've ever sensed before."

Yusuke snorted in dismissal, "Yeah, cus' you've sensed so many demons before. What's the count so far? Two?"

"They were searching for something."

Yusuke blinked, "Whoa, what?" What do you mean, 'searching for something?'"

Kuwabara shook his head, "I don't know, man. But whatever it is, they thought I either had it or knew where they could find it. Otherwise why would they bother with me?"

That was when Hiei stepped forward, catching their attention, "They are searching for me because I stole something from an employer of theirs. He wants what I took back in his possession."

He then glared so fiercely Kuwabara yelped and Yusuke felt his fists tighten involuntarily.

"And I'll be damned if I let them take her back." Hiei's fangs were slightly bared as he hissed the last statement out.

Yusuke's eyes widened in comprehension even as Kuwabara's clouded in confusion.

"Shit, Hiei," Yusuke started, "Your sister's at Grandma's. There's no way these guys can get to her. And we can beat them if them try, right?"

Hiei flinched when he heard Yusuke utter the word "sister", breaking out of his sudden rage, "Dammit, Detective! I told you, no one must know we are related."

He stabbed his arm in Kuwabara's direction, "That includes, I'm sorry, included the Fool!"

Yusuke cringed, "Crap. I'm sorry. I swear you only said she couldn't know." He flung up his arms exasperatedly, "How was I supposed to know Kuwabara couldn't know either?"

That was when Kuwabara cut in, finally fed up with not being able to follow the conversation, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up, guys. What are we even talking about?"

Hiei exhaled slowly, he'd deal with this situation somehow, "The two demons you sensed are called the Toguro brothers; mercenaries for hire that specifically target demons."

He pinned the two teens with a solemn stare that had them gulping in anxiety, "They are currently far beyond what we can hope to face and, if we try anything, they will kill us before we can move."

"Oh man," Kuwabara gulped, "So, ah, hey. Why are they after you- er, your sister?" His face twisted, "Gosh that's so weird to think about you having a sibling. Bet she's ugly an' shrimpy, like you."

Hiei glared somewhat for appearances sake but inwardly he couldn't help but wonder at how similar Kuwabara's words were to the ones he had uttered in the future.

He turned his attention back to the matter at hand when Yusuke spoke up.

"This is bad." Yusuke said, eyes straying towards the carpet as he struggled to form his thoughts into words. Finally he groaned and slumped down onto the edge of Kuwabara's bed, crossing his arms, "How could this get any worse?"

Kuwabara frowned at that question, "You shouldn't have said that, Urameshi. Things always get worse after people say stuff like that."

Hiei scoffed and Yusuke looked at his friend as if he'd like to hit him for his idiotic comment, "Stupid, it doesn't work like that except in movies and cartoons. What are you? Five?"

"Whatever, Urameshi. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Yusuke rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Hiei, "So, what are we gonna' do if we can't fight them?"

Hiei hesitated, struggling with what, exactly, he should say. This was where he could easily trip up; more so than he had done already if events were changing like this. He couldn't imagine how to divert the Toguros' attention away from them until the proper time. They'd just have to play it by ear then. There was no other choice.

He knew they just had to make it past the Saint Beasts, otherwise the name "Yusuke Urameshi" would mean nothing to the younger Toguro. Without that acknowledgment, admittance to the Dark Tournament would be impossible and Sakyo's plan to open a hole to Demon World would be within the businessman's reach.

And well, then the Human World would likely end in chaos and flames, but Hiei was getting away with himself. He just had to handle things one step at a time.

Accepting his decision, Hiei made sure the other two were focused before he laid out his plan, "We can't hope to fight them now. We will have to keep training and hope Koenma will hand you more missions."

Yusuke frowned, "Why should I care about missions, won't they interfere with training?"

"And won't that attract their attention?" Kuwabara piped in, "I mean, that's really bad, right?"

Hiei shook his head, although Kuwabara's suggestion was slightly perceptive, "Wrong. You two want to catch the Brothers' attention. It is known that the Younger Toguro has been looking for someone who can truly challenge him in combat. Many have tried but none have even managed to face him at half his strength."

"If you can gain his interest, he may postpone killing you to let you grow stronger," He looked at Yusuke, who was wide-eyed in dawning comprehension, and continued, "He will be most interested in you, Detective. Because your job forces you to fight with many well known demons, it is likely he will know about you soon."

Hiei thought about what he'd said and revised his words, "It is likely he already does."

Yusuke tried for his usual cockiness while Kuwabara murmured, "This is crazy," to himself.

Hiei ignored their actions, saying, "Just keep training." He vanished out the window leaving the two boys to themselves. They decided on an impromptu sleepover.

Hiei left the house behind him and traveled to a new sleeping spot for the night, no longer trusting his usual places. He was positive that the Saint Beast mission would be issued tomorrow morning. It couldn't have come at a better time, too. With the mission they would be out from the Toguros' range for a bit, Yusuke would take down the necessary "well known" demons, and, most importantly, Kurama would join the team.

He settled down to sleep knowing it would be fitful. Hiei was a shallow sleeper anyways, but the demon's guard would be up until he was sure the Toguro's were no longer targeting either him or Yukina.

He was sure that, at this point, the Brother's would still be working for Torukane under Sakyo's orders. Hiei would just have to wait until Sakyo got what he wanted from Torukane, namely his money, then had him killed. Then the employer would have no interest in the twins; they would be safe until the Dark Tournament.

Hiei froze when hands slid around his neck.

'Spoke too soon.'

"You put up quite the chase," Toguro Ani's voice drifted closer and the clawed fingers dug delicate pinpricks into his neck in warning. He felt the demon's straggly hair brush over his shoulders as he spoke, "But in the end, nobody outruns us."

Hiei sent out a mental shout with the Jagan right before the world went black.

Yusuke and Kuwabara jolted awake at the same instant. Somewhere a few towns over, Kurama did as well.

Kuwabara stumbled out of his bed and stepped on Yusuke, who'd taken the floor, as he searched for the light switch.

"What the hell was that?" Yusuke pulled himself off the ground and rubbed at his poor abused foot, though he wasn't paying attention to the pain.

Kuwabara found the light and they winced when it turned on, "I don't know, man. It felt like Hiei, I think he's in trouble."

"Dammit, I'm not supposed to get these psychic things. So why'd I wake up too?" Yusuke questioned tensely.

"I dunno', Urameshi, maybe Genkai helped you get better at sensing stuff like that." He'd answered, but the carrot-top wasn't paying the conversation much attention.

Yusuke shook his head slowly, "Nah, Grandma said my psychic sense sucked and always would suck, so that can't be it."

Kuwabara gasped and looked up at Yusuke, speaking hurriedly, "Hey, you don't think those demons, um, the Toguro Brothers got him, do you?"

Yusuke winced and clenched his jaw in dread, "Shit, maybe. Whatever that was felt really bad."

The detective started throwing his clothes on and his friend stared, "Er, what are you doing, Urameshi?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?" His response was muffled by the shirt he was tugging back on as he determinedly answered, "I'm going to go get him back from those bastards, that's what!"

Kuwabara looked as if he'd argue but stopped as he considered the situation, "Yeah, we're probably gonna' die going after them, but who cares. You don't leave friends in the hands of evil vicious demons. Even if the Squirt's just as evil and vicious as they are."

So saying, he pulled on his own clothes and walked over to join the other.

Yusuke smirked, covering up his nervousness with arrogance, "Damn straight. If that Younger Toguro wants a fight so bad, I'll give him one."

He threw open the door and they slammed to a stop in their tracks, bravado wilting.

"What's this I hear about looking for a fight?" Shizuru stood in her pajamas, scowling dangerously. She sent a waspish look towards Kuwabara, "You know you have school tomorrow and it's three in the morning."

Yusuke flung his arms out in frustration, "I'm sorry, Shizuru, but Hiei's in trouble an' we hav'ta go rescue him!"

He sidestepped her, not waiting for a reply, to dash down the stairs, slipping on his shoes and running out the door before anyone could stop him.

Kuwabara gulped and hurried passed his sister too, shouting apologies and begging forgiveness as he followed Yusuke.

"What has gotten into those boys?" Shizuru sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before giving up and heading back to bed. She'd punish her stupid kid brother later.

Kuwabara huffed as he caught up to Yusuke, "H-hey, so where are we even going?"

"I don't know." The other replied with all seriousness.

"What? How can you not know?" Kuwabara glared at his friend, "You mean we're running around in the middle of the night for no good reason?"

Yusuke glared back, "Of course there's a good reason, we're saving Hiei!"

He slowed to a stop, "I just don't know how we're going to do that when we don't even know where to start."

Kuwabara groaned in disappointment, "Come on, Urameshi. You're the detective, why don't you ask Koenma for help or something? He's some all-powerful god of the dead, isn't he?"

Said detective snorted at the other's suggestion, "Yeah, if by 'all-powerful god' you mean, 'all-powerful paper-pusher'. He's a freakin' baby, with a pacifier and everything!"

"Oh, no way, we're all doomed," Kuwabara said melodramatically, "The God of the Spirit World's a baby and demons are real and my sister's gonna' kill me when I get home and I was just starting to get good at school and-"

"Shut up, Kuwabara!" Yusuke shouted in irritation. He now knew what Hiei had meant by rambling being annoying, "I have an idea but we're gonna' be traveling for a while. We'll have to go to Grandma's place and talk to Yukina."

"Who's Yukina and why do we have to talk to her all the way at Genkai's temple?" Kuwabara asked, still a little disgruntled at having been yelled at in the middle of his panicked spiel.

"She's Hiei's twin sister, the one I accidentally told you about, and she's been captured by this guy before. She'll be able to tell us where he's hiding." Yusuke replied.

"So, hurry up. We've got to get to the train station," He turned and started running again, forcing Kuwabara to chase after or be left behind.

"Dang it, Urameshi! I didn't bring my wallet!" Kuwabara yelled out, "And do the trains even run this late?"

Yusuke had thought this was going to be something of a suicide mission he and Kuwabara were undertaking by themselves.

So when he came up to the train stop and saw a familiar redhead standing there he was both incredibly curious and incredibly relieved at the same time.

"Hey, Kurama!" He called, waving his hand when the other turned in surprise.

There were very few people taking the train this time of night so Kurama spotted Yusuke easily and began to jog over to him.

"Yusuke, what on Earth are you doing here?" The demon said once he'd reached them.

Yusuke grinned shakily, "Oh man, am I glad to see you. Hiei's been kidnapped and-"

"Hey who's this guy?" Kuwabara, who had finally reached them, asked, "And why are you telling him about Hiei?"

Yusuke glared peevishly, annoyed at being cut short, "Kuwabara. Kurama. Kurama. Kuwabara."

"It's nice to meet you, man."

"A pleasure."

Yusuke rolled his eyes, "Great, now you guys have met. Now let's get back to: Hiei's been kidnapped and we need to get a move on before they kill him!"

Kurama nodded gravely, "So I take it you also felt the mental cry he sent us?"

"Yeah, what was that exactly?" Kuwabara asked, "Urameshi was spending the night at my place and it woke both of us up. Scared the crap out of me and we're not sure how Urameshi sensed it cus' he has the psychic sense of a goldfish."

"Hey!" Yusuke said, affronted.

"You know it's true Urameshi, just accept it." Kuwabara shot back.

"Ah, that would be because Hiei specifically sent it to us, possibly in the hopes we would come to his aid. But more likely to warn us he'd been captured and allow us time to plan something." Kurama paused, "How did you know to come to the station? I followed the mental trail but neither of you appear to have that capability yet."

They had moved on and were about to buy their tickets when he asked this and Kuwabara answered with, "Well, Urameshi was training with Genkai and Hiei brought his sister to the temple after he rescued her from the same place they took him to. So we're going to go and ask her where that is."

Yusuke face-palmed, "Kuwabara! Hiei's gonna' kill me now. He told me not to tell anyone and now you're going around telling everyone and their freakin' mother!"

Kurama blinked, "Well, that's interesting. I had no idea that's who she was. However, we have no need to ask her about the location. Hiei woke up briefly and contacted me through telepathy while I was tracking the mental cry back to where he was kidnapped."

Kurama smiled, "Yes, we just have to take the train to the forest a few hours away from here."

Yusuke stopped yelling, "That's a really useful skill," He grumbled, "How come Hiei never taught me that or, hell, why didn't the old Hag?"

The other two shrugged and Yusuke sighed at the response, "Well, all right. Lets get tickets to this forest."

They were about to purchase the tickets when Botan ran up to them out of the blue, trailing behind her a baseball bat.

"Wait, wait!"

Yusuke groaned, "Why are there so many damn interruptions today?"

The Grim Reaper smiled when she recognized Kuwabara and Kurama standing next to Yusuke, "This is perfect! I need you three to come with me right away."

"What? No!" Yusuke protested instantly, "Some assholes kidnapped Hiei. I don't have time to deal with Spirit World crap."

Kuwabara nodded his agreement, "Yeah, Botan. Can't you guys have someone else handle this new mission?"

She shook her head, ponytail swinging with the force of it, "What's more important, one person or an entire country? Because if you guys don't hurry we're going to be overrun by Makai Insects released and controlled by the Four Saint Beasts."

Yusuke scowled, "You know, I got a test question like that once and I didn't like it. Who cares if a bunch of bugs try to wipe out the city? Can't people just swat them?"

Kurama had stilled next to them when he heard who, exactly, they were going to be facing, "You mean they have escaped?"

"No, not exactly. They want to be released from their domaine and are threatening us with the Makai Whistle and the Insects if we don't comply. But so far they only take over the minds of depressed people and I've been sent to try and contain them while you guys go in to take down the Beasts." She frowned, "And that is why we need your help. Without you guys a lot of innocent people will be killed. There is no other Spirit Detective team, you're it."

"Botan we can't just leave him stuck with those guys," Kuwabara protested, "He's a jerk and he kicks my butt in training, but you don't know how powerful they were and they're after his sist- er, Yukina." He looked guiltily in Yusuke's direction when he almost gave away Hiei's secret again. But the other wasn't paying attention.

Everyone watched as Yusuke struggled with his decision. Kurama sighed and made it for him, "Yusuke, we must go and stop the Saint Beasts."

Yusuke looked up, shocked at what he'd heard, "Are you serious, Kurama? You know what those guys could be doing to him. Even he said he wasn't strong enough to fight them."

Kurama nodded as he listened to Yusuke, "You are correct. However, I know Hiei is strong enough to last until we complete this mission. He has survived long enough in the Demon World to ignore pain and so he will survive this, too."

"Also, I believe they do not wish to kill him," Kurama revealed in an attempt to calm Yusuke and Kuwabara's worries, "Merely make him tell them where he hid Yukina. They cannot hurt him too badly."

"You sure the Half-pint can take it?" Kuwabara said worriedly.

"Yeah, and are you sure he can handle it if it's the Toguro Brothers he was kidnapped by?" Yusuke said severely, watching Kurama for his reaction to the name.

"Please, Yusuke!" Botan cut in, "Spirit World will look for Hiei and gather information for you, but we need to get to the Demon World portal."

"Fine!" Yusuke shouted back, "I'll do the mission. But if we get back too late and Hiei's dead, I quit! You hear me?"

She nodded tightly, mouth pressed to a thin line, "Thank you, Yusuke. Now come on and follow me! We have to get back to town."

Yusuke glanced over his shoulder once as they left, silently apologizing to Hiei about the choice he'd just made.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you confused about Kurama's sudden overtake of the spotlight, I reference this fic: Precision by BlossomWitch. That's pretty much how I view and will portray Kurama. But in this version there is no Hiei and so our fav fox has to take up the slack. He knows Kuwabara and Yusuke would have trouble if he didn't involve himself more and that he'll need them intact at the end so they can rescue Hiei.

Hiei wakes to the dangerous feeling of being watched and he hates it because he can easily recall why that's not such a good thing.

'You let your guard down.'

And had gotten surprised by the last person he'd wanted to meet in an abandoned building, far from any possible backup.

He mentally shook himself.

The Toguro had knocked him out, yes, but Hiei had been through worse and still kept his wits. The rest of his thoughts were scattered and there was an insistent throb at the back of his head. Two things managed to surface through the haze:

'Not good.'

And,

'You're so damn screwed.'

He can't help but agree with the unbidden thoughts. Hiei was never one to lie so blatantly to himself- at least about things like this. Kurama might disagree but the damn Fox wasn't there right now, now was he?

The rest of his body comes back in increments of sensation and he realizes he's got an even bigger issue to deal with. The paper energy suppressing wards pasted over key points of his body plus the bindings over his legs and arms are going to severely hinder his escape attempt. He recognizes the cold pressed against his back for what it is and is glad they at least chained him low enough to the ground for his feet to touch- possibly because they didn't expect him to live long enough for it to matter.

He's still irked.

'My guard wasn't good enough. I should have seen this coming.'

How he had even been found was concerning and he could only think that the bastard, Torukane, had recalled his face well enough to send them after him.

The demon wanted to panic. He could feel the eyes still pinning him down from some unknown place in his cage and his pulse fluttered unevenly before he could tamp it back into calmness.

He'd just about managed to get himself under control when a voice cut through his ears like a knife.

"We know you're up. Pretending to sleep will only prolong your torture and cause nothing but amusement for us."

His deep, even breaths stopped short in his lungs. Any other time in his life, Hiei could have dealt with what he knew was coming. But that was because every other time he'd been on his own, only responsible for himself.

It was very different now.

'Che. When did I get such a damn hero complex?'

He sensed movement towards his position and opened his eyes to glare balefully at his captors.

"I was hardly pretending. Merely waiting to see if you were competent enough to realize I was awake." Hiei sneered to show them what he thought of their competence even if they'd been aware of his ruse.

He saw a sickening smile cut through the shadows of the room, highlighted by the moonlight shining in streams from a latticed window.

The bound fire demon had only a frozen moment to recognize where he was when that smile disappeared and suddenly he couldn't feel his face.

A gasp was forcibly exhaled from his lungs and his ears rang from the vicious blow to his head.

Toguro Ani dismissively looked over his hand only a foot away from Hiei, "Go ahead, child, you can be as cocky as you want, the pain will feel all the same."

Hiei spat blood out from his mouth and smirked, "You're a fool if you think pain will have any affect on me."

His grin dropped, "And as for the attempted psychological torture, well, by thinking that placing me in the same room as the Koorime will have any affect, you're sorely mistaken."

A loud crack split the air as- again- Hiei was shown where his antagonism would get him.

Hiei settled for glowering silently as the blood trickled down his face.

The grin was back on Toguro Ani's face, the sight and scent of blood spurring the sadistic human-turned-demon to begin the punishment in earnest.

His clawed fingers began to twist and extend in hideous caricatures of vines or ropes to draw bloody streaks over Hiei's body. Always careful to keep any rends from being mortal wounds; Just deep enough to achieve the greatest pain without giving any respite through unconsciousness.

Through it all Hiei kept silent, gritting his teeth and clenching his eyes. This pain was nothing compared to all he'd experienced in his life. From birth he'd been through one form of pain to another, with the Jagan implant being above all the worst. He'd mastered the Dragon of Darkness Flame when no other could through sheer will and nearly lost use of his arm for the effort. Nothing this low rate, psychotic, wannabe demon did was up to those levels.

He smirked, eyes still closed and blood staining his fangs to give him a vicious, macabre look.

The Toguro stopped and frowned, demanding in his warped voice, "What's that look for? This isn't supposed to be funny!"

"Heh." The fire-demon opened his eyes and red glinted in the moonlight, just as it shined off the red staining the rest of him. "You're pathetic."

The hit that comment earned him sent white spots dazzling his sight and a hot wave burning throughout his head. Hiei still grinned, "This level of torture is something even the youngest and weakest can accomplish in the Demon World."

His smirk widened, sweetly venomous, "And something tells me you've never had the fortune to set foot in our realm."

The unholy rage that erupted onto his captor's face was perfect.

Hiei had always wanted to personally destroy the psychopathic little demon. Kurama's end to the Toguro was a truly horrific form of justice but it wasn't Hiei's justice. Now he finally had the opportunity to pay the bastard back some for all the trouble he'd dealt their group.

He choked as the spindly fingers wound around his throat and began to squeeze. Hiei's neck wasn't normally so fragile but with his energy suppressed the secondary defense it gave him was gone. He was as vulnerable as any human.

Hiei couldn't hear anything but the blood pounding in his ears and thudding in his veins as he ran out of oxygen. He felt his world narrow to a pinpoint and darkness crept up around him.

"Brother, stop."

'Ah, he makes his presence known at last.' Hiei's lips gave a small twitch upwards when he felt the other figure that'd been only watching the proceedings thus far step forward.

Toguro Ani looked startled and affronted, "But Brother! You heard what this low-level rat said!"

The younger Toguro came into view, sunglasses missing from his face revealing the blank wall of his expression.

"We're going about this the wrong way." He stopped a little behind his shorter sibling, one hand calmly settled in his pocket as he surveyed the scene distantly. His eyes sharpened when they finally found Hiei's and his grin was an infinitely many times more gruesome and terrifying than Toguro Ani's had been.

"Pain obviously has no affect. We will just have to find something he cares about... and take it away."

Hiei scoffed, "There is nothing. I'm afraid you've hit a dead end."

Toguro's eyes seemed to burrow into Hiei's mind through pure force, "Really? I recall a certain house in a suburban area that had your signature all over it. Perhaps we'll go there and see who's home."

'No!'

Hiei felt like he was being strangled all over again. His eyes widened unintentionally and the pupils dilated to pinpricks, nearly enveloped by the red irises.

He'd momentarily forgotten that he was responsible for people this time around. The Toguro's hadn't been that neglectful.

Hiei shook his head harshly, "I couldn't care less about the humans who live in that house. I merely travel that way often."

Please work. Please work! His subconscious screamed at him to stop them, distract them, in someway to get them away from the Kuwabaras.

Kuwabara was important to the group. Kurama and Yusuke were integral to the group. It was only Hiei who could be spared. They needed Kuwabara's abilities and morals, Kurama's intellect and experience, and Yusuke's leadership and faith in their team. Hiei was simply another demon that had somehow managed to join them.

'And the Fool would never forgive me if I get his sister killed.'

He'd never forgive himself.

He opened his mouth to keep their attention but didn't even form the first word when the younger Toguro spoke again.

"Come, Bother," He began waking towards the door, "Let's leave our guest here to think about what he'll be telling us when we bring the humans back here."

Hiei followed their progress out the cell door and down the hall with wide, horrified eyes and mouth hanging open, stunned at what he'd just done.

Then he remembered where he'd left Yusuke at and felt an even greater dread when he realized how badly he'd just screwed up.

He let his head fall back limply against the cold, stone wall, uncaring of the flash of pain that seared through him.

The fire-demon had never felt so weak before.

Yusuke grunted as he landed in a roll on the grounds of Demon World for the first time. The portal Botan had lead them too had dropped them from a pretty decent height and it had only been his instincts that'd saved him from a clumsy fall.

He glanced at Kuwabara and, standing up easily from the crouch he'd fallen into, tried some of his usual humor, "Wow, Kuwabara. Guess Hiei really did kick your ass while I was gone. I thought for sure you'd fall flat on your face."

His friend shot him a dirty look for the insult, "Just you wait, Urameshi. I'll show you how awesome I got by takin' out all these guys by myself!"

Kurama stayed silent, observing the interaction calmly. His green eyes sharpened imperceptibly at the mentions of Hiei.

"Hiei has trained you as well, Kuwabara?" He hedged carefully.

'What is he up to?'

The teen stopped glaring at Yusuke and responded casually, "Yeah, I guess. If you can call his training 'training,' more like torture."

Kurama smiled in understanding, "I see. Well, he must see potential in you to be putting forth the effort of overseeing your training."

"Huh." Kuwabara obviously hadn't been looking at it that way but Kurama's words put a considering look on his face.

"Come on, guys. We still have to save the city, you can gossip later." Yusuke grumbled with more irritation than usual.

The three turned to look at their surroundings. The lightning that flashed seemed to struggle through the thick cloud cover and there were few trees between them and what could only be their destination.

They began walking towards what Yusuke assumed was the Beasts' location. A massive castle that, although rundown in appearance, was still sturdy and foreboding in the desolate surroundings.

Other than the periodic lightning strikes it was silent between the team. Yusuke was lost in his thoughts and the other two had quietly decided to give him his space.

He had wanted nothing more than to go home after Genkai's training and relax for the first time in six months. He'd have been forced into hanging out with Keiko, fought with Kuwabara, sparred with Hiei, and skipped school on Monday. It would have been perfect.

Now, he was rushing against time to make sure one of his only friends didn't get horribly tortured and killed while saving the entire island of Japan from four demon bastards who thought they could get away with releasing hoards of killer bugs on the unsuspecting populace.

'Normal people don't have to deal with this shit,' Yusuke mused as he walked.

They reached the entrance, rough rock, chipped away in the shape of a skull.

"Ooh, scary," Yusuke grumbled. He walked forwards without another word.

The cave was unlit but the group could just make out a light at its end. The natural walls gave way to grey brick and the end came into sight.

Then a purple bat-eye thing fluttered unsteadily down in front of the exit.

Yusuke heard a song start in the back of his head, "One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater..."*

'Disturbing.' He shuddered. 'What the hell kinda' screwed up stuff was I watching back then?'

Then it started to talk and he focused back on the situation.

"This is the Gate Of Betrayal. Only one of you may leave and the rest will be crushed to death. Simple, really." It flew over to a lever and one of its tentacle...things pulled it up. When the ceiling and walls began to shake Yusuke knew they were in trouble.

"Guys, lets not hang around here any longer," He pointedly said.

He didn't wait for their nods before sprinting towards the light. They made it twenty feet from the exit when the dropping ceiling finally forced them to stop running and throw their hands up to stop its decent.

"Shit!" Yusuke swore, feeling fear course its way through his limbs and up into his hands, where they held the ceiling from going any further. Energy poured off him in waves to increase his strength but it wasn't nearly enough.

Kuwabara and Kurama were on either side of him and he could already see the sweat beginning to drip down their faces.

The purple demon chortled in its high pitched voice, single golden eye shining in triumph, "I told you, nobody but the traitor amongst you will pass this gate. And it has been set to each individual strength level so that all three must hold it up together. Though if one were to make a run for it they may make it to the end while the other two are crushed to nothing but a bloody smear."

Its gaze wandered idly between the three, "I wonder, who it will be? The humans? Already known for being a cowardly species. Or the filthy, human-loving demon, Kurama?"

It narrowed its eye, "Although you were much faster than any who have tried this before, no one has ever gotten this close."

Kurama had glared at the label he'd been given and Kuwabara looked like he wanted to forget the crushing Ceiling of Death he was currently trapped by and rush the demon, but held himself back.

The carrot-top scowled, "Geeze, now would sure be a good time to have the Shrimp here." He glanced at Kurama, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have super-speed too, huh?"

Kurama grinned ruefully, "Unfortunately not, Kuwabara."

He smirked, "I do, however, have something that will work just as well at this distance."

Yusuke realized he'd never seen Kurama fight yet, "Oh, yeah? What's that?"

Kurama smiled apologetically, "You'll see. Prepare to take the extra weight, you two, I'll try to make this quick."

They nodded their understanding and braced themselves.

In a single move, Kurama dropped his body into a crouch, one arm going into his hair and pulling out a rose."

Yusuke and Kuwabara hissed in pain as the ceiling added more force and they felt themselves being pushed even further towards the floor. They looked at Kurama and noticed the flower but didn't have time to do anything else before he flung his arm out and the rose became a whip.

Kurama's green eyes were intent on his target, red brows drawn downwards in concentration. The vine whip had no thorns on it and was grown to longer than he was used to for combat. He could see the two boys struggling to keep the ceiling at bay and hurriedly pushed more energy into the vine, extending it to the end of the hall and reaching up to the lever.

He smiled triumphantly and pulled the lever back down. The fox was just in the process of bringing the whip back towards him when the boulder fell where the lever had been. The cloud of dust settled and the ceiling began to rise.

"Alright, lets go kick this guys ass," Yusuke growled dangerously, shaking his limbs out as he stalked towards the exit.

The other two wasted no time in following. They'd had enough of this hallway.

The eye-demon fluttered angrily above their heads but didn't get to say much before being sliced neatly in two by a, now thorny, whip.

It screeched in pain and blind fury, barely hearing Kurama's voice, "Perhaps your masters can save you in time before you bleed to death, but I would hurry or I doubt you'll make it."

The former thief smiled, "And perhaps they will take your body as a message."

Kuwabara sent the redhead a frightened look, "You're pretty scary, man. No one should be able to do all that with a flower."

Yusuke snickered appreciatively, "Whatever works, Kuwabara. And I bet you wish you could do that cus it's a lot more useful than your sword."

Kuwabara gasped in indignation, "It is not, Urameshi. Just you wait til' we find that Saint Beast! I'll take him down myself!"

They continued on into the main castle and quickly found themselves lost.

"Ok," Kuwabara said, "Which way do we go? I think I've seen this hallway like three times already."

Yusuke dragged a hand through his hair in frustration, "Hell, I dunno', we're not doing very good at this stupid maze thing."

Kurama just stared quietly at the wall in front of him, seemingly searching for something in the stones.

A torch lit up suddenly, light flaring up and illuminating a door that had definitely not been there before.

A voice echoed out around them, as if coming from the walls themselves.

"Oh, you have yet to even reach the maze part of the castle. But you will never get that far because I will be killing you all shortly."

Yusuke didn't even wait for the echo to fade, walking up to the doors and shoving them open.

"Get out here, I'm a busy guy and I don't have time to mess with you today, so hurry up!" He snarled out into the shadows of the room. They'd finally found their first beast and it had taken too long in his opinion.

"Impatience is something I have seen on many of the fools to test us. But very well-"

The room brightened considerably as more torches were magically lit. What was more interesting was the shifting floor in the center of the room.

Kuwabara gave a startled cry and Yusuke took a step back. Kurama just loosely settled his arms at his side in preparation for quick movement.

The stone demon pulled itself seamlessly out of the ground and laughed, "My name is Genbu and I will crush you like all the others."

Yusuke glared at the challenge but turned to his teammates instead of attacking, "Listen, Botan said there's four of these guys and Hiei's not here so we're one short."

Kuwabara snickered when Yusuke said "short" but otherwise paid attention.

"We can't fight these guys separately, we'll just get worn out. So we havta' do this together, alright?"

When he received nods from the both of them he whipped around and quickly fired off a Spirit Gun, keeping the energy low enough to reserve shots.

Genbu howled and lashed out with the long, stone tail behind him, "How dare you! I'll kill you all!"

"Go, you guys!" Yusuke shouted and dashed forward.

Kuwabara's sword flashed into existence and he charged as well while Kurama called his whip back into his hand and ran to the side.

Genbu was only blinded for a moment and vanished back into the ground before Yusuke made it to him. The team stopped advancing and searched warily around the room.

"Dammit, where'd he go?" Yusuke grit his teeth, watching the ground for any sign of the demon.

Kuwabara and Kurama simultaneously looked at the ceiling and set their weapons at the ready. When Genbu reappeared only Yusuke was surprised, but his instincts made up for his momentary lapse.

The team dodged rocks shot at bruising- internal bleeding-type bruising- speeds, though they were unable to escape them all and blood flew from quite a few peripheral hits.

Yusuke was used to dealing with high speed and fired of another Spirit Gun, this time vaporizing the rock golem's outstretched arm. "Hah! Gotcha!"

Genbu smiled (Yusuke assumed he smiled. It was hard to tell when the things lips were made of rock) and his arm reformed right before their eyes.

"What? How is that possible?" Kuwabara yelped out, before being forced into another run when more rocks were shot his way.

The detective of the team noticed something glowing amidst the rock demon's body and glanced at the other two to see if they'd also seen it.

Kurama nodded and he spoke quickly, "You will need to distract him, I'll take care of the tricky part."

The two teens went immediately on the offensive, sacrificing their defense in the hopes of finding Kurama an opening. Genbu sent another hailstorm of rocks their way and Yusuke grinned in triumph when he noticed the red rock in the middle of it, even as his body was scored a few times.

The rocks soared past them and slowed to regroup with the main body when a vine green whip snapped out and shattered the red stone without hesitation.

The effects were immediate.

"What have you done?" The stone beast roared, eyes rolling wildly in its skull and pieces of its body crumbling to dust. Unable to comprehend his own death, Genbu eventually wore down to nothing, leaving the way clear of all but his echoed screams.

"Well," Yusuke grinned cockily, one hand on his hip, "On to the next one."

He did a brief onceover of the fox and psychic, "You guys doin' ok?"

Kurama smiled and Kuwabara nodded, both dissipating their respective weapons.

Kuwabara grimaced when he noticed the tears in his uniform, poking at the sensitive cuts, "I got a couple of scratches but only Shizuru is gonna' care about those when we get back."

"Yeah, good luck explaining them to her." Yusuke snickered, "But lets go, we still have the rest of these guys and then we're outta' here."

They left the chamber and took the staircase up. Yusuke jumped when he heard a cheery noise coming from his pocket, patting hastily at it before remembering it was the mirror Botan had left with him.

Still running, he pulled it out and flipped it open.

"Yusuke!"

"Gah!"

Kuwabara looked at Yusuke in pity when the other had let out a surprised shriek at the volume of Botan's voice. "Wow, Urameshi. That was just sad."

The detective scowled, "Shut up. The stupid thing didn't even wait for me to hit the answer button it just connected."

Botan interrupted, "Please tell me you've taken out most of the Beasts."

She looked like she had been running recently and her hair was out of place, frizzy blue strands sticking out from the usual neat ponytail. The small screen showed a dingy back alleyway and not much else.

"Do you have any idea how big this place is?" Yusuke nearly shouted, "We only just got the first guy and we're running up the longest flight of stairs besides Grandma's. This is going to take awhile!"

"You've got to try and hurry, Yusuke," She shook her head emphatically, "The insects have moved beyond taking the minds of depressed people and are going after children now!"

"Dammit." Yusuke swore, "We're going as fast as we can, Botan."

They reached a hallway at the top of the stairs and Yusuke determined they must be close to the next Beast, "I'll call you back or something. We've got the next fight on our hands."

He hung up and shoved the compact mirror back in his pocket.

"Well," He glanced at the Kuwabara and Kurama, "You heard her, lets hurry up before the whole city gets turned into zombies. I'm not ready for the apocalypse yet."

"I can't believe they're going after kids now," Kuwabara growled out, his sense of justice awakening at Botan's words, "I can't wait to find this next guy and teach him a thing or two."

The hallway led to another flight of stairs and they determinedly continued on.

Kurama sighed, "To think, these demons used to help humans and were worshipped as Gods. Now they are trapped here, unable to visit either the Human or Demon realms as they used to."

"How the mighty have fallen." The former-thief's eyes glinted as they lazily perused the stairway before him, as if he was taunting someone and expected them to answer.

Kuwabara frowned; a little unsettled to hear that some of the old gods were actually demons.

The suddenly shaking stairway was enough to convince him it didn't matter and that there were still three very angry demons on the loose.

"Fallen, have we?" The words making the stairs tremble were more of a roar than anything and the three winced as the stumbled against the walls for support, startled shouts echoing from Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Come face me and we'll see who's fallen, Spirit Fox." Another roar and the bricks coming loose from the ceiling convinced the team that hurrying would be in their best interests.

They burst through the doorway just as the entrance collapsed in on itself, a dust cloud following them out and making them cough and close their eyes against the irritants.

Yusuke almost wished he'd kept his eyes closed when the dust somewhat and he realized they were really high up and there were no guardrails on the walkway.

'Now would be a really bad time to develop a fear of heights.' He thought with weak sarcasm.

A quick look at Kuwabara showed he wasn't the only one watching the edge warily, 'But at least I'm not being as obvious as him about it.' He thought triumphantly.

Though Kurama looked completely comfortable.

The dust cloud dissipated completely and Yusuke grimaced when he saw what it revealed. The thin walkway and open platform led up to an overlook where the biggest damn cat he'd ever seen stood baring its teeth in what must have been a smile but instead just looked monstrous.

The demon sneered down at the group, lip rising further over the ridiculously sharp fangs, "Pity you weren't crushed in the staircase, but I have been wanting fresh prey to play with so I suppose it's not so terrible." Even at so far a distance, the tiger's voice carried over clearly.

Yellow cat-eyes focused on Kurama and the sneer grew, "Come, Kurama, let us see who has fallen farther, the traitor or, I, God-Tiger, Byakko. Perhaps if you put up a good fight I'll spare the humans."

Yusuke saw Kurama's eyes narrow and glared, pissed that the other demon thought he had a right to go around insulting his teammates, "Lets go get this guy. He sounds a little to cocky for someone who's spent the last few years sitting on his ass up in a tower."

He stalked forwards, "Try not to fall, guys, I don't think any of us can fly."

He smirked back at Kurama, who grinned wryly at his comment.

Kuwabara followed behind the two, legs only shaking a little as he struggled not to look down, "Yeah, let's not test that please, Urameshi. Or mention heights at all, okgreatthanks."

Byakko leaned on his knee, resting a clawed foot against the stone blocks on the tower, "Yes, come and meet you deaths head-on, it will only better send a message to the Spirit World that we are not to be trifled with."

He waited patiently for the group to make it to the platform before leaping from his perch and landing heavily before them. The demon crossed his arms and bared a fang again, "I would not think that beating Genbu meant anything. He was weak and we only ever used him to travel into the city for information. His death was insignificant and to think otherwise only confirms your foolishness."

Kuwabara took offence immediately, "What? How can you say that about your own teammate?"

Kurama looked appraisingly at the boy who was caught up in defending their defeated opponent's honor. It seemed he had moved past his prejudice towards demons enough that he could realize they also had the capability for honor and human emotions; though unfortunately not these demons specifically.

"Kuwabara, this species of demon hold no loyalties but those born from strength," He shook his head, "They do not care if one of theirs dies except that it looks bad on themselves and their own power."

The teen gaped, "How can that be possible?"

Yusuke cut in, glaring at everyone, "Hey, we'll talk about the philosophy of demon social habits later. Can we just kick this guys ass and get on with it?"

He charged energy into his fist and focused on Byakko, "Either get out of our way or die."

The tiger grinned, "Try, little human." He flexed his claws and reached up into his green hair, plucking a few strands and blowing on them. The strands were released onto the wind just as Yusuke darted forward to attack.

The teen's fist met the demons stomach just as the four strands of hair turned into weird, bug-eyed, and green cat-things that landed at the edges of the arena.

Kuwabara shouted in alarm and he swiftly called his sword into being as the nearest cats lunged at him. A quick look at Kurama showed the other dodging two cats of his own and the psychic focused back on his before he got skewered.

Yusuke grinned as he made contact and sent his energy out in a shockwave. The smile faded as his punch did nothing and he was forced to dodge a swipe from the Beast's claws.

"What the hell?" Yusuke yelled at his opponent, leaping back and away from the near hits, "You shoulda' been knocked on your ass from that punch."

The demon just laughed and continued to push his attack, "Let's see if you can figure out my little trick before your energy runs out and I kill you."

Yusuke glared and rushed the demon again, energy charged to both fists this time. He broke through the other's defense and threw furious punches into the unguarded stomach.

With each impact he could feel his energy lessen, already drained from holding up the Gate of Betrayal. The detective gave up when a dizzy spell hit him and he stepped back to see if his assault had done anything.

"Hahahaha."

Was it just him or did Byakko seem larger than before? Yusuke felt frustration well up within his chest and cursed inwardly, panting from his exertion.

Kurama came up beside him suddenly and he blinked before hastily checking to see if Kuwabara was also finished. The teen had a few more claw marks added to his jacket and was in the process of cutting through the last of his attackers.

He grumbled when he realized he hadn't accomplished anything while his companions had been fighting.

Kurama's voice brought him back to the fight, "I believe he has been absorbing your energy, Yusuke. We must stick to physical attacks if we wish to fight him. Allow me."

Yusuke nodded, noticing that Kurama had a few scrapes himself and had somewhat strained breathing. But they had no choice. Both his and Kuwabara's techniques relied heavily on energy attacks and their non-augmented punches would only bruise their hands because he swore the demon's body was like punching a brick wall. "Dammit, ok. Me an' Kuwabara will back you up on this one."

Kuwabara had made his way over and the three faced off against Byakko.

"Good work bringing down those creations of mine." The demon mocked, "They are but small parts of myself and would only be mere percentages of my total strength. But it will be more entertaining to rip you apart myself so it is for the best that you survived them."

Kurama wasted no time with small talk and snapped his thorny whip out to wrap around the tiger's leg, pulling it taught.

It sliced easily through the fabric around his ankle, just biting into the skin, but a burst of energy from Byakko widened the noose to let him escape before any damage could be done.

He released a deafening roar and leapt at the fox. He couldn't reach the other, however, as Yusuke and Kuwabara came up at his sides and did their absolute best to trip him up. He stopped his frontal charge to deal with the humans attacking his side and growled when they dodged just out of range. He sped towards Kuwabara, who he had dubbed the weakest link, when a pain in his leg stopped him flat.

He looked down and cried out when he noticed a wriggling green vine twisting inside his open wound. His shock was short-lived as Kurama's whip once again found its way to him, this time twining around his neck.

His cry was cut off with his head and he fell to the ground.

"Jesus, man," Kuwabara mumbled, feeling queasy as he watched the purple blood gush out of arterial veins and spill at their feet, "That thing is deadly."

Yusuke couldn't take his eyes off the beheaded demon, "You're telling me. That was pretty bad-ass, Kurama."

The fox stooped down to retrieve his plant from the tiger's leg before standing and smiling faintly, "My apologies. It seemed the quickest way to finish him before we wasted more energy and we cannot afford to spend any more time on these fights."

Yusuke agreed and they made their way around the rapidly spreading pool to the stairs beyond, avoiding looking back at the defeated enemy.

'Only two more,' Yusuke thought grimly, 'Hang on, Hiei. We're comin' for you soon.'


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, I'm not dead, just easily distracted. So I humbly offer up this chapter for you in hopes you'll all forgive me for leaving you guys hanging for so long :}
> 
> EDIT 1/23/2013: You guys are going to hate me for this but I figured I'd give you a heads up in advance instead of leaving you hanging for months like usual. I have been utterly swept up in The Hobbit fandom (Durincest/Bagginshield ftw anyone?) and I likely won't be able to tear myself away from it to update until I've read everything there is to read and seen all the fanart on deviantart and tumblr (seriously, guys, the FEELS I'm getting from this fandom are ridiculous). So hopefully this recent fandom will wear itself out sooner than later and I'll update this fic :)
> 
> EDIT 5/20/2013: And the wait continues as BBC Sherlock takes over my life. I swear the update will arrive eventually T.T

Shizuru came out of her dreams almost violently, gasping and rolling onto the floor in a heap of blankets.

Getoutgetoutgetout!

The psychic practically tore her way out of the constricting sheets and fumbled into some clothes without looking at them before racing out the door. The world moved at a confusing, whirling pace and nothing made sense except the overwhelming force telling her to get out of the house and far away.

She had the distinct feeling of being hunted.

Shizuru wasn't one to question her intuition; it had never led her wrong before. Right now it was telling her to get the hell out of town or lose the ability to breath, or, you know, exist on the living plane at all.

Nothing about her intuition was ever clear or precise with its instructions. She only got the sense that her house was dangerous and that she needed to leave immediately.

Her feet moved seemingly of their own will and she felt her mind begin to calm enough for rational thought to seep through.

'I must look crazy, running around in-' She quickly checked her hastily thrown on outfit and winced, '- an oversized ugly t-shirt and sweatpants.'

Still, she ran on. Something pushed her to ignore her aching lungs, unused to so much effort and damaged from her steady smoking habit.

The small suburbs ended quickly and she entered the start of the busier part of the city. There were people everywhere, even at the time in the morning when no sane human should be awake.

Shizuru felt very alone. None of these people could possible help her escape from whatever or whoever was pursuing her.

She laughed out loud, almost hysterically, and noticed the people walking past her flinch and walk faster to get away from the 'crazy woman'.

Ignoring the weird looks she was getting from the last-call partygoers and early-morning workers, Shizuru quickly went towards the subway. The whole city felt dangerous right now and she had to flee as far as the money in her wallet would take her.

That might not be far enough. Shizuru forced down her fear and stepped onto the train.

'If this has anything to do with why Kazuma ran out this morning I'm going to kill that kid when I find him.'

"Well, this is... weird." Yusuke looked down at the molten lava simmering at the bottom of the room. "How did this stuff even get up to the middle of the castle?"

Kuwabara winced as he stood from where he'd been watching a strip of his shirt burn to a crisp in the lava after he'd dropped it, "Yeah, aren't we really high up? I remember climbing a bunch of stairs and we couldn't even see the ground from where Byakko was."

Kurama smiled sheepishly, "The Demon World often has impossible physics from the Human World standpoint. It is in a different dimension, after all. There are far more confusing aspects of this world but I doubt you two will ever see them."

'Unless, of course, Koenma sends us on more missions here.' Kurama looked at the two humans- children in his eyes- and hoped, for their sakes, that that would never be the case. The Demon World was not a kind place for humans.

Yusuke shot the fox an inscrutable look that Kurama wondered at but said nothing about.

The detective turned his eyes forward and said dryly, "Lets go. And nobody fall cus' I'm not jumping after you."

Kuwabara snorted at the comment and the group took to carefully leaping from small dirt platform to small dirt platform.

Trying to distract himself from the peril beneath his feet, the orange-haired teen spoke to the other two, "Hey, Shorty plays with fire all the time. You think he could survive this lava?"

Yusuke groaned at the utterly idiotic question, "I don't know, Kuwabara. Why don't you ask him next time you see him? I dare you."

They made it past the lava room, through a few more corridors and, just when they were feeling like they'd made progress, entered into the start of the actual maze of Maze Castle.

Yusuke cursed, "Dammit, we can skip this part, right?"

Kurama shook his head, though he was sure it was just a rhetorical question.

Yusuke turned to Kuwabara, "Alright, resident psychic, it's all yours."

"Yeah, I got this." Kuwabara mumbled, already looking at each ancient door intensely.

Kurama watched without comment, covering his interest up with a mild expression. This was something he'd never had any natural ability in. The aged spirit fox had learned and honed his intuition through years of practice and sheer intelligence but a real psychic like Kuwabara would always have an inherent edge over him.

The teen nodded at one of the doors and the group followed him up to it.

Kuwabara shoved it open confidently.

"Eeeeeeee!"

The mouse sitting in the doorway squeaked at the high-pitched scream and ran into the darkness of the hall.

"You big baby!" Yusuke scowled, hiding his racing heart, "It's just a stupid mouse. What are you, a girl?"

Kuwabara growled, "Shut up. It just shocked me, 'is all. 'Sides, don't let my sister hear you say that. You'll probably be the one afraid of mice by the end of it."

"Sounds like you're just trying to cover up that little mice scare you." Yusuke smirked.

Kurama held back a sigh as the boys argued the entire walk through the tunnel.

'This is to rescue that fool fire-demon who's gone and gotten himself kidnapped,' Kurama thought with some exasperation, 'And to work off my debt to Spirit World, for entertainment purposes, and, I suppose, to save the Human World from destruction.'

The list went on. The demon-fox would need it to deal with the excitable teens he would be working with for the foreseeable future.

Hiei forced his jaw to unlock. He'd been gritting his teeth in agitation unknowingly again.

The blood had finally stopped seeping from his many superficial wounds that he'd received from Toguro but he kept tearing new one's open in his repetitive escape attempts.

He glared at the empty space on the other side of the room. 'At this rate I'll bleed out before the Toguro's make it back.'

He didn't pay that thought much attention before returning to scraping the paper wards off against the stone wall. The problem, he realized, was that, although the paper wards were slowly coming off, so was the layer of skin around it.

He could feel the blood- hot, as a fire-demon's blood should be- seeping into the wards and dripping steadily down his arm.

He'd only torn through a few on his upper shoulder. The stone was almost too smooth to be effective but Hiei hadn't been able to think of anything else other than waiting to be rescued and he didn't think his pride could live with that.

The irony of his situation and that of the original timeline's situation wasn't lost on him.

The moonlight had already left the latticed window and birds were beginning to chirp. Hiei tried to ignore the sense of urgency building with each passing second he remained stuck in the cell.

Time passed, the light in the room growing brighter. Two bluebirds fluttered onto the windowsill and Hiei cursed bitterly at them just because that was all he could do at the moment.

When his glares did nothing to get rid of the obnoxiously cute avians, the demon returned his attention to the wards.

Hiei smirked in satisfaction when another ward tore off and slipped to the floor with a small plop. He frowned. Perhaps he was bleeding a little too much if that small strip of ward had been so full of blood that it'd made such a big noise.

The birds flew off and Hiei continued steadfastly, determined to free himself if it goddamn killed him.

The Toguro's appeared in front of the Kuwabara's house. The younger frowned minutely while a dangerous scowl overtook the other's features. They vanished again, just as the sun peeked over the horizon and illuminated where they'd been standing.

A new wave of insects swarmed the city. More riots broke out as more and more people succumbed to their influence. Botan hefted her baseball bat with confidence, but the way her fingers tightened on the handle until her knuckles turned white showed her fear.

She wanted desperately to call Koenma to tell him she couldn't do anything more and get him to call her off the mission. But, she turned saddened pink eyes towards the chaos she saw and knew she couldn't just leave the humans alone to defend against something they had no idea how to fight.

The ferry girl turned when she heard a low growl behind her. She glared at the approaching ghoul and pulled out the bug-spray.

She'd stay just a little longer. As long as she could.

Yusuke didn't let the blue dragon statues guarding the door scare him. The frequent lightning flashes brightened the way before them to show a heavy door and the two aforementioned gargoyles.

"You know who we're up against this time, Kurama?" Yusuke questioned.

Kurama frowned as he studied the door before them, or rather, the frigid energy he could sense behind it. They might have some difficulties with this fight.

"I believe it is Seiryuu, the Blue Dragon." The fox replied.

"Bet'cha this guy thinks he's a real dragon or something." Yusuke said impetuously.

Kurama smiled, "We can only hope that isn't the case."

Kuwabara was the one who moved forward first and pushed open the ornate door letting the cool, white light within pour out. What followed the light was a billow of smoke brimming with ionized energy that made the hair on their skin rise.

When the empty room was all that greeted them Yusuke nearly growled with impatience.

"Hey! Get out here! I'm tired of everyone's damn theatrics in this castle."

A swirl of the same smoke that had filled the hallway swept through the middle of the room. When it disappeared what it revealed was very much not a dragon.

Tall, blue-skinned, and dressed in ornate Chinese robes, the Blue Dragon Seiryuu wore a decidedly unimpressed look on his face as he perused the new challengers.

Yusuke snorted and nodded at Kuwabara, "See? What'd I say? This guy doesn't look anything like a dragon to me."

Yellowed eyes narrowed, "You would do well to hold your tongue in the presence of your betters, human."

Seiryuu turned his gaze to Kurama and frowned, "And you, traitor. My master might have allowed you to live if your insolence had not been so great. I will enjoy killing you the most."

Kurama didn't seem overly concerned with that statement, choosing instead to pull out his rose and smile challengingly.

Yusuke and Kuwabara took his stance as the signal to stop the mock heckling they'd begun with their opponent. They wore similar grins on their faces and settled into their own stances.

Seiryuu noticed and raised his hands before him, speaking in cold monotony, "Very well, we shall begin. Let us see if you can stand up to the might of the Blue Dragon or perish like the others."

A cold mist gathered around the demon's form, crackling with the energy it contained.

Kuwabara flinched and dove to the right to shove Yusuke down, gasping out a sharp, "Watch out!"

Kurama had reacted the instant he'd seen the teen move and was glad for it when he saw the entire area freeze over where they'd been standing.

Ice glittered off the walls and floor in an irregular pattern and an audible crack had sounded when it had formed.

Yusuke stood quickly and looked at the ice in shock, mentally shivering at the close call. He turned sharp eyes back to the demon, suddenly a little more wary.

Seiryuu chuckled, "Did you like it? My Ice Dragon technique can freeze anything it touches with its subzero temperatures."

He smiled maliciously at the glares his comment brought on, "You will not be able to dodge forever and your human bodies are so very fragile."

'Dammit. Hiei would have been really useful right about now.' Yusuke thought with no little frustration. The little demon would have easily been able to match Seiryu's speed. Hell, the fact that he could use fire to attack would probably have been perfect for neutralizing the ice-user.

His thoughts were chased away by the suddenly oncoming ice-wave. A barely-executed dodge saved him but he could feel the sub-zero temperatures nearly catch him, freezing the shirt edge that it had just lightly brushed past.

A quick look told him the other's had escaped too and he continued his hasty evasions.

The teen couldn't keep running forever and most of the room had been coated in ice. Kurama had been keeping his distance most of the battle while he and Kuwabara kept trying to dart in for forward attacks. None of them were fast enough at this point to catch the demon off guard so far.

What was worse was he could see Kurama being exceedingly careful around the ice and he guessed that the fox's plants didn't agree with the chilly element.

'He's not gonna' be able to get close to this guy. I havta' do something before one of us trips into the damn ice.'

"Well," Yusuke mumbled wryly to himself, "When in doubt, pump it full of lead."

He grinned, "Or in my case, spirit energy works too."

Kuwabara seemed to have the same idea, stopping his run and making a beeline for the room's center.

"Hey! You're not the only one who can fight long range!"

Kurama guessed at what the carrot-top was planning and darted in towards Seiryuu as well, hoping to keep the demon's attention divided.

Seiryuu hesitated at the two targets coming from both sides. The brief moment bought both Yusuke and Kuwabara time to strike.

"Spirit gun!"

"Sword, get long!"

Kuwabara's spirit sword swept at Seiryuu's mid-section, extending from his hand and reaching across the twenty-foot distance. At the same time, Yusuke's spirit gun came at him from the side and Kurama hurled himself away from the ice technique Seiryuu had chosen to direct his way.

Seiryuu realized his mistake too late and only managed to take a step back before being struck simultaneously by the two energy attacks.

His last echoing cry slowly faded along with greater and greater portions of ice from the room's surfaces.

The three relaxed and watched the ice disappear, taking the moment to catch their breath.

Finally, Kuwabara exhaled loudly and dissipated his sword, "Just one more guy, right?"

Yusuke nodded, his expression half-serious, half-cocky, "Yeah. And if he's anything like the last three guys, we're not gonna' have any problems kicking his ass and walking out of here like strolling through a field of friggin' daisies."

He turned a considering eye on Kurama, "You got any daisies in that hair of yours?"

Kurama frowned, "I assure you, Yusuke, all the plants I have are used strictly for the purpose of battle or wound treatment. So, no, there are no daisies in my hair."

Kuwabara was quick to hide his emerging grin, shaking his head at the teen detective, "Geeze, Urameshi, way to make friends."

The teen sent them both shit-eating grins and held his hands up in surrender, "Sorry, man. Your flowers are badass. Now lets go put the fear of plants in this last guy."

Kurama smiled, shaking his head amusedly, "You have such a way with words."

The team began walking. As they climbed the flights of stairs, the sound of thunder became increasingly louder until at last they reached the outside.

Kuwabara glanced around the platform they'd found themselves on. The flashes of lighting cast the enormous area in blue hues and made the highest tower easily noticed.

He pointed at the rounded tower, "I guess this is where the last guy is cus' I don't see anywhere else he could be."

Yusuke agreed, "Yeah, and unless we want to climb the wall to that window I'd say we're gonna' have to take those stairs. Let's go."

From a dark, cavernous room came a soft laugh and a spoken command was translated into music on a whistle, "Go, my harvested humans, whittle down their strength and their time."

A flutter of wings brought his attention to the nearby window as a large colorful bird landed on the stone sill.

He seemed unsurprised when it opened its mouth and spoke in a high, trilling voice, "Master Suzaku, I'm back!"

"What have you found, Merugu?"

If the bird could have smiled it would have, "As it turns out, our troublesome guest has very few friends but the one he does have is very important to him. A one Keiko Ukimura who is currently in school and incredibly vulnerable at the moment."

The yellow-haired demon smiled, "Good work, my dear. Let's give Mr. Urameshi something more to fight for than his life and the city's."

He placed his lips once more on the whistle and played a hauntingly simple melody that wound its way out through the window and into another world to settle in the ears of the Makai Insects. The controlled humans stopped what they were doing and turned as one, headed towards a certain middle school.

Yusuke stumbled to a halt about halfway to the stairwell and gaped in muted horror at the green, human-shaped things shuffling towards him.

"Eugh! What are those things?" Kuwabara apparently shared his thought process, voicing his question to the only one who might know about the creatures.

Kurama, their resident expert on all things demon, narrowed his eyes at the approaching ghouls, "They are harvested humans; fairly weak and whose main purpose here, I believe, is to slow us down and waste our time."

"We must hurry through them. If we can clear a path to the stairwell we should be able to knock them out of our way as we climb. The last Saint Beast will likely call them off once we get close enough to his tower." Kurama pulled out his whip again, leaving the other two to follow suit. They began running, keeping bunched together.

They met the first of the wave in a flurry of attacks that made the green vegetative flesh of the harvested humans fly into the air.

Yusuke fought the temptation to break off from the group and go fight the entire hoard, staying in the general straight path they were making.

Slowly, they were enclosed within the heart of the enemies; a small pocket of space moving steadily towards the stairs.

Kuwabara huffed as he swung at two of the veggie-heads and lunged at two more in front of him, "It's like these things are never-ending!"

Yusuke grunted in agreement, punching out a ghoul into two more behind it and dodging a grab from another. He eyed the distance between them and the entrance, noticing they were almost there and putting more effort into his movements. The longer they stayed there fighting, the more energy was sapped and he had a feeling they were going to need it for the last battle.

'And we'll especially need our energy for when we go get Hiei.' He thought wearily.

The teen nearly sighed in relief as they reached the stairs, finally relaxing as he let Kuwabara and Kurama sweep the encroaching ghouls off the railing-less stairs and into the gaping black pit below.

The group ran as quickly as they could until the wave of enemies slowly trickled to a halt. They eventually found themselves at the top of the stairs facing large bronze doors detailed with soaring phoenixes and intricate lightning.

Yusuke didn't waste time coming up with snarky commentary about overly elaborate, gaudy doors, instead moving to open them without fanfare.

The thunder that had been muted in the stairwell was thrown into sudden clarity. Yusuke was given a slight pause as, while his eyes swept through the room, he noticed the large, yellow glowing circle on the far wall.

His eyes widened as he noticed a picture beginning to form in the nebulous structure.

"Keiko?"

Laughter, of the haughty, soft-spoken, upper-class variety forced him to drag his gaze away from where his childhood friend ran with terror apparent on her face across the screen.

The sound of an instrument made itself known then, though Yusuke thought it must have been there the whole time and he'd just been too distracted to hear it. The sound cut off, then.

"Do you like it? I call it 'Prelude to Keiko's Suffering' in D' Minor." A man- or demon, rather- with a striking appearance walked towards them from near the back next to the screen. A throne was behind him that he must have been sitting in earlier. His violet eyes flashed with the lightning, framed by two odd, bright red strands for bangs and a mass of bright yellow hair. His shocking features combined with multicolored clothing meant that he stood out in sharp contrast to the dull surroundings.

Yusuke's attention zeroed in on his new enemy. 'Target. Freaking. Acquired.'

"Hey!" He shouted bitingly, "What the hell is Keiko doing on that thing? And why is she running?"

His shouting only made the leader of the Saint Beasts chuckle mockingly, "I have sent the Makai Insects on her with that little tune and they are chasing her as we speak. Why, by the end of this fight she'll be as dead as you are."

Kuwabara growled, "Like heck you're gonna' beat us! If you haven't noticed, we already got rid of all the rest of your Saint Beasts and you're going down too!"

Suzaku smiled condescendingly, "Well, if it will make you feel better about yourselves, keep believing that."

"You're going to die! You're going to die!" A voice trilled from up above and Merugu flew down to land on Suzaku's outstretched arm, "Master Suzaku, shall I hold the whistle for you while you kill these pathetic trespassers?"

He glanced lovingly at the phoenix before sighing dramatically, "Yes, I suppose that would be best. I wouldn't normally waste the effort fighting them with both hands but they seem so earnest I suppose I should play without that handicap."

She gave the bird equivalent of a smile and grasped the whistle in her claws before flying away to land on the top of the screen.

Yusuke clenched his fists, glaring heatedly at the demon, "Alright, that does it. I didn't really care about you when I got this damn mission but then went and you decided to make it personal."

His gaze narrowed, "Fine. I can do personal."

Then he charged, cocking back a fist filled with energy. Yusuke met the demon in a flurry of punches and, were he aware of anything outside of the fight, he'd have noticed when Suzaku widened his eyes in surprise the teen's speed.

He finally had enough of dodging and countered, expecting to floor the boy and return to gloating.

He missed, stumbling passed and turning around with wide eyes and mouth gaping.

'How is that possible? He's fast but surely not that fast!'

"Good one, Urameshi!" Kuwabara grinned from where he and Kurama stood on the sidelines. He didn't want to get in the way of Yusuke's attacks and he was sure Kurama was trying to analyze Suzaku's moves to find a weak point. Which, ok, maybe he should be doing the same.

"Nice try! But you're gonna' have to be a lot faster than that to hit me!" Yusuke shouted as he turned and pursued the stunned demon.

Suzaku growled. Somehow the human wasn't as weak as the rest of his species. He'd have to put forth a little more effort, then.

He darted towards Yusuke and put on a burst of speed.

Suzaku's leg struck the teen in his middle followed by a vicious elbow to the back of the neck. Yusuke virtually bounced when he hit the floor, emitting a short cry when he came to a stop a few feet away.

Kuwabara gasped, "Urameshi!"

Suzaku approached him, ignoring the angered yell from the other human, "So you have a little training. I suppose that was apparent, or else you never could have defeated the rest of the Saint Beasts. However, that will hardly help you in this battle."

He raised a hand and gathered energy into his palm. Energy coursed through the rest of his body, seeming to shine out his eyes, turning them a bright blue. A strong slash of his hand and the world imploded.

Debris rained down from the ceiling and the floor shook- the whole tower shook- from the massive strike it'd just received.

Yusuke's breathed heavily, heart pounding as he stared at the hole in the ceiling overhead. The lightning that had blasted through the stone roof had singed a black hole ten feet from where he lay. The area on all sides of the center was streaked with soot.

'Crap. This guy can harness friggin' lightning!'

He lunged to his feet ready to keep fighting when a glance at the screen stopped him cold. Botan had found Keiko somehow but the both of them were still being chased by the controlled. He could clearly see how tired the grim reaper was. She couldn't keep running for much longer and he knew Keiko wasn't going to hold out for long, either.

"Dammit! I am sick of your stupid insects!" Yusuke raised his arm, having unconsciously been gathering energy as his rage built while he watched the two girls running for their lives. He let the energy fly with a shout of his signature move.

The spirit gun flashed towards Suzaku like the bullet it was modeled after. The demon hastily leapt aside, wincing as the bright light shot past him. A crackle warned him that something had gone wrong and he looked down to check himself.

"No! How can this be?" He gasped as he took in the webbed cracking on one of the red hair-tendrils now emitting electricity, "It should be impossible to have damaged them."

"Well maybe if your damn hair-extensions weren't so long they wouldn't get hit. Just a thought." The detective said in answer to the rhetorical question.

That was when Kurama and Kuwabara decided to join the fight.

Yusuke smirked, "Nice of you two to finally join the party. I'd hate to have to take all the credit for this mission."

Kuwabara glared, spirit sword appearing in his hand, "Shut it, Urameshi. We fought just as many battles as you did."

"Let's try to avoid the lightning. It's going to be hard to patch you up if you get fried by it." Kurama advised cheekily, pulling out his whip as he did.

Suzaku sneered at the team, "It does not matter that there are two more of you fighting now when I have a veritable army to set against you."

He concentrated again, clasping his hands together and releasing the stored energy with a shout. Suddenly there were seven Suzakus, each posing a different way.

As one, they jumped, bows and arrows forming out of electricity in their hands.

A crackle and an almost unanimous shout echoed from all seven as the arrows were released.

Yusuke thought he dodged. An arrow struck him anyway and he may have screamed, though that might have just been all in his head because he was sure you got paralyzed when hit by electricity. Something about nerves.

The teen wondered if Kurama and Kuwabara had also been hit and if they were feeling what he was feeling. He hoped not because he was pretty sure he would be out of commission when this was over.

He considered all this from another part of his mind. The part not experiencing the pain he was undergoing. And the pain seemed to last an eternity until it left him and he found himself in an exhausted heap on the floor.

The damn Saint Beast was monologue-ing again. Well, Yusuke would just have to show him why it was stupid to celebrate without checking to see if they were actually dead.

Feeling was returning to his limbs and he turned his head to see if the others were okay. His eyes met with Kurama's and the demon gave him a sly smile, nodding slightly when he mouthed Kuwabara's name.

'Ok, Kuwabara's fine too. Let's start this shindig back up.'

'I have about two more shots, three, if I give it everything I've got.'

He gathered energy once more, hoping Suzaku- all seven of them- or his damn bird wouldn't notice anything.

'Here goes nothing.'

"Hey, you bastards!"

Yusuke leapt to his feet, "You forgot to double-tap!"

The Suzakus turned in shock at the unexpected noise. The demon had probably thought his attack would keep them unconscious longer than it had.

Yusuke was aware of Kuwabara and Kurama also on their feet with their own attacks about to be released. He decided to save them the trouble of expending energy and end the fight with a new move he'd learned.

"Shotgun!"

The blue bullets knocked into their target, which had been unable to flee such a widespread attack. Suzaku was flung back into the wall, only able to emit a painful sounding cough before lying still.

Yusuke grinned. He was just too good for words.

Although, "Like that one, you guys? Granny taught me that and it's probably my new all-time-favorite move."

Kuwabara shook his head, "Yeah that was pretty sweet, Urameshi. But we should probably check to see if he's, uh, you know, dead or something."

The detective nodded and looked to where the demon had landed only to see Kurama was already there. He watched as the redhead tossed something at the body and then as a flower quickly grew out of the corpse.

"Well, that's one way to be sure." Yusuke said, once again grinning. Kurama's method was a lot cleaner than his or Kuwabara's would have been. And hey, flowers were beginning to look cooler every time the fox used them.

Movement caught his attention and he saw Suzaku's bird-thing trying to make a break for it. Not on his watch. He'd spent way too much effort on this mission already.

He leveled a spirit gun at the bird and fired. Both bird and the whistle she'd been carrying were vaporized.

"Right, now that that's done." Yusuke pulled out his communication mirror and called Botan. She answered after a few moments looking exhausted but relieved.

"Yusuke, you did it!" The grim reaper smiled widely.

Yusuke smiled back. He hadn't wanted to do the mission but someone had to, even if he'd complain about it later, "Yeah, how are you an' Keiko?"

"A-ok," She flashed him a thumbs-up sign, "That girl knocked a few heads in. I've just dropped her off at home safe and sound. I'll be by to pick you guys up in a little bit so hang on."

"Gotcha'." Yusuke hung up and shoved the mirror back into his pocket. Kurama and Kuwabara came up next to him and he cracked his knuckles, stretching out his arms, before relaxing into a confident stance.

"Alright, guys. It's time to go rescue our resident pyro."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In other news:
> 
> I'd just like to write for you a little something about Keiko. I sometimes get reviews or pm's about her telling me she's an evil little witch and I should not include her (also the picture I get just perusing for yyh fics) and, while I don't intend to pair her with Yusuke, or even like her as much as the rest of the cast, I don't hate her either. She's boring and naggy and whatever else about her bothers me but she is still the only friend Yusuke had until he died and met the others. Anyone who can stick with Yusuke at his worst doesn't deserve to be bashed and killed off or have her character destroyed just so your yaoi/OC/Het/whatever pairing can get her out of the way of twuuu wuvvvv.
> 
> Yeah, sorry about that. I just figured I'd get that out of the way because I may have mentioned Keiko too much in this chapter for people to handle (-_-). Also that doesn't change my love for Yusuke/Hiei lol It just means that I respect the friendship/canon romance between Yusuke and Keiko enough not to just shunt her out of the way as unimportant for the sake of that pairing :)


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) Um... so how's it going everyone? *a tumbleweed blows past. The crowd remains unmoved. All is silent.* (The tumbleweed is an actual thing where I live now so they've been making appearances as the hiatus continued and my lame apologies were written lol).
> 
> I think it's been about 2 years since the last update and many of you have probably forgotten about this fic but I think the hiatus/writer's block (may it burn in the void) is over now :) This chapter isn't as long as I wanted it to be- or as long as you guys deserved- but it felt like the right place to end it.
> 
> I just finished college in December so, while the job hunt begins, I will have unreasonable time to work on my writing so the inevitable hiatus will hopefully be a long while in the future and this fic can finally be completed lol
> 
> I'd ask for reviews but I don't think I've earned them yet, maybe in a couple chapters :}
> 
> Either way, hope you guys like the update!
> 
> (A/N) 4/13/15 update: Really sorry about the delay on ch 18, guys. I'm about 8 pages in right now and it would have been up earlier except it turns out I have much less free time than I anticipated. I live on a farm with my family and it's a fully functional with tons of things going on all the time. This spring has been the busiest yet and I have had maybe an hour a night to sit down before bed. Needless to say, not much writing has been going on, except a few sentences here and there when I finally get the time. So I want you guys to know I haven't been trying to put off the chapter or ignoring it, it's just more like the tortoise than the hare right now, slow and steady :)

When Botan found them in the ruins of the tower, Yusuke noted that she really had flown as fast as she could. Her frizzy blue hair, messy from the earlier prolonged attack by insect-controlled humans, had already half-fallen out of its usual neat ponytail.

But the grim reaper smiled as she approached their group and her landing was still smooth.

"Well?" she prompted. "Are you boys ready to get back to Human World?"

Yusuke let out an exasperated rush of breath. Even though he was happy to see Botan, the question was a little ridiculous.

"Did you even need to ask? This place is depressingly empty. I've been ready to leave since I got here."

When they got Hiei back, he'd have to ask if all of Demon World was like this place. He'd ask Kurama, but the fox could be distressingly vague about certain topics. At least with Hiei, Yusuke could count on to either tell him something or not. No running in verbal circles.

He missed the brutal honesty.

The team made the short trek to where they'd been unceremoniously dumped out from the portal in the sky. This presented a minor problem seeing as none of them could fly. Luckily, Botan had the answer for their lack of wings.

"Alright. First one, hop on," Botan said, patting the back of her oar.

"You know, this is kind of a really inconvenient place for a portal," Kuwabara said, peering semi-irritably up at the sky where the portal resided, indistinguishable from its surroundings except as a lingering hint of unstable energy on the periphery of his senses.

Yusuke made a sound of affirmation then walked up to perch himself unsteadily on the oar. Botan smiled a little sadly when she took in the teen's solemn appearance. She adjusted her grip on the oar and went up through the tear in the sky to deposit Yusuke on the other side, then returned for the rest. The group vanished one by one through the portal until they were back in the Human World.

Yusuke waited, arms crossed, until Botan let Kurama off the oar and resealed the portal entrance before focusing his stare on the grim reaper.

"So? Did Spirit World find anything or are we going in blind?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid it's not much to go on and you're not going to like what we have on the Toguro brothers," Botan said as she stood up from the sealed portal, absently tugging her hair tie out and starting to redo her mussed ponytail.

Kurama cut in unobtrusively, saying, "Let's have this conversation on the move. We have little idea how long the Toguros intend to keep Hiei, for but I would like to get him out as soon as possible either way."

"Yeah. Should we head back to the station, then?" Kuwabara questioned, already beginning to move up the stairs out of the basement.

Botan shook her head as they walked, taking the lead, she answered, "No, that would lead you there in a round-about way. You were all heading in the right direction but it would be faster to take the bus out of town."

Kurama seemed to think about this before saying, "Yes, that would make sense, Hiei wasn't able to tell me much so I only had vague directions to go on." His eyes narrowed. "Would Spirit World happen to have anything on a man called Gonzo Tarukane?"

They'd reached the bus stop and settled in to wait for the next one to arrive. The streets were a little less crowded than usual. Yusuke assumed it was because the large amounts of crazed riots that had broken out earlier in the day had scared all but the most ambitious people indoors.

The bus idled to a stop and let them on, where they settled in for the three hour-long ride, before Botan finally answered.

"Spirit World has files on him. None of it's good." She turned worried eyes to the horizon. "He's the founder of the Black Black Club that deals in demons, slavery, the black market, anything illegal basically."

She squinted her eyes in thought. "It's odd actually. We were just recently starting to gather this information because we'd heard he was holding a certain important demon captive. We were planning on sending you on a rescue mission soon before this emergency popped up."

Yusuke frowned, thinking out loud, "Hiei taking Yukina away from that bastard must have made them pretty angry."

Kurama continued his thought, "Angry enough to send out the best mercenaries money could afford outside of Demon World."

Botan nodded. "Yes, Spirit World is just happy- and a little surprised, really- that Hiei didn't kill Tarukane or any of the human guards to save her. Given his past record, I mean."

"Spirit World arrests and sentences to death any demon who kills a human, and I'd hate to ask you all to bring Hiei in for such meaningless deaths."

Yusuke sucked in a sharp breath at that statement, turning angrily to Botan. "Well, they'd have to get someone else to do it for them 'cus I sure as hell wouldn't be."

His statement stopped the conversation, slow-going as it already was, and Botan swallowed nervously. Kurama inwardly smiled at Yusuke, amused at his daring attitude.

The boy really didn't have any issue with telling authority where it could go, namely straight to Hell.

Kuwabara looked confused, and seemed to be contemplating Botan's earlier words.

"Wait. Do you guys have a file on Hiei? Why would Spirit World be surprised? 'Cus I get Hiei being a little violent- I would be too, to save my sister- but I didn't think he was a criminal or anything. And only criminals have records, right?"

The grim reaper blinked at the teen's questions, glad for the distraction but not sure how to break the news to the two teens. Looking at a certain fox thief, Botan was sure Kurama already knew about Hiei's nature and so probably wouldn't be shocked at what Spirit World had on the fire-demon.

She doubted Hiei had been very forthcoming with his past to the boys. Most demons weren't.

"Well, I can't reveal any of the details, that's only for each soul's own eyes- and Spirit World's, of course- but I can say that yes, Hiei is on our files for at least theft, among other things," Botan revealed.

"It's more that his past is a little harsh and he has shown inclination to react violently," she continued, trying to placate the irritated detective.

"Huh. Well, that's not really that bad," Kuwabara said. "I mean, Urameshi over here steals stuff all the time and reacts violently. He's not exactly the poster boy for calm, collected behavior."

"He's got a point there, Botan," Yusuke said, not looking apologetic in the slightest.

She smiled sadly at their reasoning. They were missing one key point.

"It doesn't matter if their crimes are similar, or lesser, even, because Yusuke is human. A human usually can't do the amount of damage a demon can and Spirit World isn't responsible for human crimes. It's all very complicated and I'd have to bring out the rulebook. I'm just a ferry girl though, so I don't know all the intricacies of Spirit World politics."

Said ferry girl shrugged. She had a feeling she'd lose the boys' attention if she went on any longer.

Yusuke grumbled to himself about crappy politicians but decided to put that argument on hold. He would be contrary later. There were sure to be plenty of opportunities waiting for him to take advantage of somewhere down the line.

He realized that they had another big issue to discuss, possibly one more important than Hiei's criminal record.

"Hey, guys," the detective started, "What are we gonna do about these Toguros? I'm all ready to go in and kick ass, but last I heard, we're basically going to commit suicide doing this."

The group collectively thought about how screwed they were.

"We'll figure something out, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, frowning but still confident.

Kurama closed his eyes, either in quiet thought or an unwillingness to agree with Yusuke's statement out loud.

Yusuke watched silently for a moment, setting himself up for a good pity party. Then he realized something.

Kurama was with them.

Not that the fox being there made them more powerful than the Toguros, but that he was there at all spoke of his belief that, somehow, they would make it out okay.

Yusuke got the feeling that Kurama was intelligent enough to know when to make himself scarce and when to stand and fight.

He smiled tiredly at his reflection in the window and leaned back against the seat.

The ride passed in silence from then on, everyone taking the chance to catch up on the sleep they'd missed fighting earlier and recover before the next confrontation.

\----------

Shizuru sat at a bench at a park in a cramped suburban neighborhood whose name she didn't know and which was decidedly empty.

She knew she should keep going; she still didn't feel safe. But by this point, after running for what felt like weeks though it had only been little more than half a day, she couldn't move if she wanted to.

It was evening already, and the sun blanketed the streets in a warm red color as it set.

The exhaustion was tugging at her mind, dragging her eyelids down over eyes stinging with dryness and making her vision hazy. Her senses were too frayed to motivate her to move from her spot.

Shizuru could say with complete certainty that she had never felt this level of fear before. There was only so long someone could handle that type of stress, and the adrenaline shooting through her system whenever she felt that psychic nudge was wearing her thin now. Her body wasn't used to this level of physical exertion and, despite the background feeling of dread still lingering, she couldn't go on much longer.

She needed to rest. Soon.

Shizuru cast her fatigue-blurred eyes to the bench she was currently sitting on. Well, she softly huffed in tired amusement to herself, more like half-laying on already.

"I can just relax here for a few minutes, then I'll keep moving," the psychic murmured to herself, already closing her eyes in anticipation of just a moment of sweet oblivion.

Her eyes jolted open and her pulse sped up.

There was a presence behind her that had not been there before.

'They're here.'

She couldn't speak, her tongue seemed dead in her mouth as she gave stuttering gasps of air and turned to look behind where she sat, dreading what she'd find but needing to see what she had been fleeing from this whole time.

'I tried. How did they find me?'

A hand dropped onto her shoulder to clasp it in a steel-tight grip. Shizuru could feel needle-sharp points digging into her skin through the thin sweater and instantly stopped moving.

"A good effort, for a human, to evade us. You've managed to lead us quite a distance. But the time for playing is up now, and we've got rather important places to be."

That shrill, deranged voice was the last thing she heard. At that point, however, with her heart thudding so fast, the steadily climbing fear, feeling so, so horrible, it was almost a relief when she was knocked into unconsciousness.

'I don't want to die.'

\-------------

The bus let them off at the base of a mountain surrounded by a vast pine forest. Yusuke let out a jaw-cracking yawn and Kuwabara was rubbing sleep from his eyes as they took in the scenery.

"Dammit."

Everyone ignored the expected grumbling coming from Yusuke, starting towards the thin dirt path into the forest.

They walked for a few miles before coming to a split in the path.

"So, which way now?" Yusuke said, glancing as far down each path as he could.

Botan looked at her watch, which Yusuke was just now noticing she'd been wearing, watching the arrow spinning on its face.

"No worries, everyone!" the grim reaper said confidently. She raised her arm to show the watch more clearly, pointing at it. "We'll just follow the trusty Spirit Detective Compass."

"Okay, Botan. But isn't that just a regular compass?" Kuwabara said, squinting at it.

"Hey, as long as it works, who cares," Yusuke said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "So come on, which way do we go?"

Botan huffed indignantly at their lack of appreciation for high-tech Spirit World gadgetry. Honestly, weren't boys their age supposed to get excited about what may as well be spy gear? Secret agents? James Bond? Nothing? She must be behind on her media if this was the reaction she was getting.

'I wonder if it's in the budget to let me catch up on Human World films,' Botan thought gleefully.

But now wasn't the time. Botan lead them down the left path, further up the mountain.

They'd only made it a few miles up when the compass led them off the trail. A few miles after that and the compass began to let out an irritating shriek of noise, startling the group out of their silence.

"Ah! What the heck is that, Botan?" Kuwabara yelped from where he'd jumped back a step.

"Yeah, and can you shut it up?" Yusuke said, covering his ears with his hands at the annoying sound.

Kurama narrowed his eyes. "I think it means we're about to have some company."

Botan nodded at the fox's assessment. "Get ready, boys."

She silenced the watch just as a figure emerged from the brush ahead of them.

"Sorry, kids, this is private property. I'm going to have to ask you to get back to the trail."

The request was innocuous and wouldn't have seemed out of place at all were it not for the threatening manner in which it was delivered.

And were it not the demonic aura the person delivering it was trying to hide.

Yusuke grinned mockingly, feigning ignorance. "Aw, I'm sorry, we didn't know."

"Yeah, and we're lost. Can't we just stay at your boss's house?" Kuwabara continued, running with the innocent act.

"Pretty please?" Botan simpered, eyes glinting in mirth.

"I'm certain there'll be plenty of space. Crime lords have the means for it, after all," Kurama finished.

"Crime lord?" the man began, peering at them over his glasses as he reassessed the intruders. "You seem to know a lot for being lost."

"Yeah, a real coincidence," Yusuke said, shifting into a defensive stance.

The demon body began to shudder, clothes straining as muscles bulged and transformed.

"You had your chance!"

The brown suit he'd been wearing shredded as green tentacles erupted from his chest down.

Kuwabara let out a disgusted noise, because, that? That was just nasty looking.

The transformation completed with a sucking sound and a proboscis appeared where the demon's previously human mouth had been. The appendage replaced his fingers as well.

"I don't know why they made me the security," the demon chuckled. "For some reason, every time I try to remove trespassers, I end up killing them!"

The ridges on his chest creaked before cracking open to reveal serrated teeth, mirroring the smaller ones on each palm.

Needless to say, the group watching him let out sounds displaying varying levels of revulsion at the finished picture.

"Unfortunately, I can't let you continue and I can't let you leave," the demon grinned sickeningly.

Kuwabara, ever the peacekeeper, tried to reason with the demon. "Do you even know what your boss is doing?"

The demon stared over his glasses at the redhead in confusion. "Eh?"

"He's torturing demons and you don't even care! Your own kind! How can you defend that guy?" Kuwabara exclaimed in frustration.

This accusation only made the demon snicker cruelly. "Don't act so high and mighty. Humans have that saying 'to sell your soul to the devil'. Well? Demons can do the exact same thing. As long as I'm getting paid, right?"

"Whatever," Yusuke scoffed. "You're just using that lame excuse to cover up what you really are." He smirked, gathering energy into his fist. "Nothing but a damn lowlife."

Really, after meeting Hiei and Kurama, Yusuke was starting to form the theory that demons were the same as humans. Each had the potential for kindness and cruelty. Tarukane was the perfect example of a human gone horribly wrong. It just so happened that this particular demon chose a similar path. It didn't seem very complicated to the detective. He didn't realize just how unusual his outlook was.

The enraged demon, not liking the insult, leapt forwards, likely hoping to tear out their vulnerable throats.

Kurama and Botan stood back and watched in vague interest as Yusuke and Kuwabara sliced and vaporized the weak attacker. Honestly, if all the guards were this weak they could practically waltz into the mansion.

At least until they found the Toguros.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the Toguros will be out when we get there," Kuwabara said.

Yusuke absently dusted his hands off on his jacket, staring in the direction of the stronghold. "Somehow I doubt that, Kuwabara."

"Yeah, I didn't think so," Kuwabara sighed dejectedly.

Botan smiled. "Well, that's the first one down and who knows how many more. I'd say we're off to a good start."

"Yes. We should hurry," Kurama said, beckoning them further into the forest.

It was starting to get dark out and Hiei had been in Tarukane's possession for an entire day now.

It was now a race to see who would reach the mansion first.

The Toguros with Shizuru, or the rescue party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'd by Kurama's Foxy Rose (after nagging for an update)
> 
> (A/N) She did nag, guys. She tried really hard to get updates from my irresponsible self. :}
> 
> ...Though seriously, reviews would be nice if only because it's been so long since I've written anything except essays for classes that I'm not sure if my writing has suffered or not lol


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) Well, this was literally (not figuratively-literally, literally-literally) supposed to be out the weekend after the last chapter was updated. As you've probably noticed, that didn't happen ahahaha I had 6 pages written up that week and then life happened and suddenly it's been months. To recap, I've nearly died on 3 separate occasions. Idk if you guys heard about those tornadoes going through Texas but my house was one of the ones hit, so that was fun :| Then I almost asphyxiated taking care of the plants in my greenhouse bc the tornado that trashed our garage meant we had to move everything in there somewhere else and it turns out fuel should be left outside and not in poorly ventilated, incredibly hot greenhouses. And of course, then I crashed my poor car (rip, Lucy D:).
> 
> On the bright side, I got a fantastic part-time job that I'm actually having a lot of fun at, so there's that silver lining :D
> 
> Hope you guys like this one. I tried to write extra to make up for the delay.

A helicopter's blades stirred up debris as it landed on the sprawling grounds of Tarukane's mansion. Two figures stepped out, ignoring the gusts that tore at their hair and clothes.

Toguro reached back into the copter and pulled out their unconscious captive.

The younger Toguro adjusted his glasses and moved Shizuru to a more comfortable position on his shoulder. That done he continued on his way into the mansion.

The elder Toguro trailed behind, lips pulling back into a slow smirk.

He could almost taste the various ways they were going to make their demon captive talk.

The younger Toguro stopped in his tracks suddenly, turning his head towards the forest.

He frowned, saying, "Brother, did you sense that?"

The elder stopped smirking, confused. He looked up at the other demon for further clarification.

"One of our men has disappeared," the younger Toguro said, frown deepening in consternation.

"He's been killed?" The elder questioned.

Toguro started walking back to the mansion again, saying, "We may have some intruders, brother. We'll have to check the surveillance before beginning the interrogation."

"Tsk," The elder grumbled in irritation. He hated when he had to postpone his fun for trivial matters.

What was the point of worrying when nothing could threaten them in this world, anyway?

\---------------

Hiei flinched, glaring out the lattice window when he felt the returning energy of the Toguros.

His breath caught when he recognized Shizuru's faint, fatigued energy, dwarfed by the demons next to her. Even dampened, the brother's energy was an ominous, enveloping presence that permeated the area.

"Shit." Hiei cursed. He knew he was too late. The feeling welled bitter in his chest as the demon stared at the blood-soaked wards scattered in macabre patterns on the floor around his feet.

'So close. Just a little longer and I could have the last of the damned things off.'

He'd gotten the ones along his shoulders, back, and nape off, painting the stone behind him red in his efforts. They'd tied his arms too well to allow enough movement to shred the wards around his hands and arms off.

If he'd just been able to get his hands free, the energy would have been enough to tear the shackles off.

Hiei stared at the floor, lost in thought. His mind was going blank but he still wrenched his arms against the chains holding him, hoping to get as many of the wards off as he could.

Defeat had never been in his nature.

He ignored the dredged up memory of a future that hadn't happened yet- of his suicide in Mukuro's base by the battle with Shigure. He had far more dependent on him this time around than he'd ever had before when it had become so peaceful. Everyone had seemed so well off without him around, then.

'Too late. You may have just killed them all before they could attain that peace with this ill-thought-out move of yours.'

Hiei winced as he considered the alternative. Yukina trumped everything in importance in his head. That was where he'd gone wrong. He clenched his hands, feeling his nails bite into his palms.

Kurama would have been able to handle the situation. The ancient fox demon would have likely left Yukina exactly where she was and let events play out the same as the previous timeline (and even then, the thought of leaving her there to her torture is utterly reprehensible to him).

He would have seen the wisdom in not interfering in things he couldn't possibly predict.

'You're young and impatient,' the fire demon thought, cursing his failure to detach himself from the situation.

He'd fooled himself into thinking he'd had a handle on things. That everything was going according to schedule. Just one mistake had the potential to cost him so much.

Hiei came to the abrupt realization that he'd frozen from his previous struggles without even noticing. The action so commonly taken by younger, weaker demons when faced with strength they'd never match. He'd seen such things often enough growing up in the wastes of the Demon World to recognize it within himself.

And he immediately knew the cause of the reaction.

The Toguro's were coming towards his cell steadily, surely, and with Shizuru in tow.

\------------

Shizuru groaned softly as she came into awareness. There was a solid, warm surface underneath her body but the rest of her was cold and she fought to understand why. Her head was pounding and her body ached. She sifted through her hazy memories, trying to ignore the rhythmic swaying that only exacerbated the pain and confusion disrupting her thought process.

To make matters even worse, her psyche kept sending sporadic mental shocks through her mind. Shizuru could feel the tattered senses of her psychic abilities- already exhausted and on the fritz from overuse- still trying to work.

Her ears registered a noise like the creak of a metal gate opening and, as her head cleared more, she heard what sounded like a strangled, cutoff breath. Abruptly, her senses cleared and she realized the utter shit position she'd found herself in.

The heat she'd been feeling under her was the broad shoulder of one of the monsters who'd chased her for an entire day before kidnapping her off a park bench. Her head and body were aching because she'd been running on no sleep or food and had been knocked into unconsciousness. Her frayed senses were only half functioning because they'd been signaling for what felt like nonstop for the entire past day and were still giving sputtering attempts because the creatures that were causing the damn alarms were still there!

It was a wonder she'd woken up at all.

Grimacing, Shizuru forced her eyes open and took her first look at where she'd been taken.

A sharp, pained gasp escaped her mouth.

"Kid? Hiei? What the hell?"

It was all Shizuru was able to get out before her mouth seemed to stop working on her and she just gaped silently in horror.

She couldn't understand what she was seeing. In fact, nothing since the night before when she'd found her brother and his friend sneaking out of the house was making sense and she wished it would start soon.

Because there in front of her eyes was the kid she'd watched hang out with her baby brother for the past six months. Only, he was covered in ugly cuts and bruises straight out of the more gruesome torture scenes in movies and his, well, everything seemed to be leaking blood onto the floor.

And, instead of crying in pain or any other normal reaction that Shizuru herself wanted to be having, at the moment, Hiei just looked grim, his mouth tightening in a harsh line across his face.

A voice she hadn't heard before interrupted her spiraling thoughts.

"I'm sorry to say but your time for an escape attempt is at its end." Said the man carrying Shizuru.

She gave a halting gasp as she was lifted off the man's shoulder and set into the sole chair she'd failed to notice upon waking in the room.

Before she could even think about struggling (and Shizuru knew how pitiful her struggles would seem, how absolutely useless they would be against these monsters), her hands were being tied to the chair.

Her legs were tied next, just as quickly and efficiently, the rope firm in place and showing no signs of weakening when she involuntarily tugged at them.

She jerked her gaze up to finally see her attackers and froze like a deer in the headlights.

Under any other circumstances the man in front of her might have been considered handsome. It was the cold expression on his face and the eyes covered by sunglasses that hid what emotion he might have betrayed which terrified her.

Shizuru broke out of her petrifaction by flinching when the second man moved into her line of sight.

This one. This was the one who'd knocked her out. The unhinged look in his eyes and sickening smile made her jerk back in her chair, panting in fear; trying to put distance between them even though she knew she was stuck in place.

"It's too bad, really, that we can't begin immediately," the smaller man started, "we've got some things to take care of before we can start the party. You know what they say, business before pleasure, after all."

He licked his lips, causing Shizuru to shudder in complete revulsion.

She barely noticed as the other man moved towards Hiei with what looked like strips of paper in his hands. She could hear awful, pained gasps coming from him but couldn't force her gaze away from her captor's.

It seemed like a lifetime she was caught in the terrible pressure, an animal being stared down by a predator and unable to flee, before the other rejoined her captor and she was released.

She watched with wide eyes as the two men turned to leave. The tall one had his hand on the cell door when he paused and turned to look over his shoulder, not at Shizuru, but at Hiei.

"I'm guessing this is going to be a very difficult conversation for you two but perhaps it would be best to make it as civil as possible because you will not get any future opportunities."

With that, he faded into the shadows of the hallway, cell door clanging shut and locked, and they were left alone.

Shizuru didn't know how she tore her attention away from the door, still caught somewhere between disbelief and accepting her reality. She almost dreaded looking at Hiei, as if seeing him would make this all real.

Because while she'd been run ragged and bruised a little, the state he was in might just make her gag from the smell of the blood alone. As hard as she was ignoring the pervasive, coppery scent that seemed to fill the small room, she could only recall that their kidnapper had said they had little time.

She needed answers.

"Hiei. What is going on?" Shizuru said, words rasping out of her throat and choking through her dry mouth.

She turned to face him fully and winced because it was still as bad as the first time she'd looked. He stared at her, his face unreadable, with dried blood crusted around his mouth. Then she really looked and remembered the strips of paper she'd first noticed being carried over by the taller man.

"Why did he put those things on you? Because they sure as hell aren't bandages. And for that matter, who the hell are those guys?" Shizuru questioned him, voice getting stronger as she pushed past her trepidation.

He automatically glanced at the nearest papers pasted to his arm when she mentioned them and seemed to be gathering himself together before he spoke.

"Those are the Toguro Brothers," Hiei said, his voice low, "They're well known in certain circles for their work in retrieval and torture, as you might have noticed."

Shizuru felt her eyes widen and she said, incredulous and shaken, "Hiei, why do those kind of people want anything to do with you. Why did they come after me? And what certain circles?"

She watched his face, searching for the answers he wasn't giving fast enough for her. She didn't even notice he'd never answered her about the strips of paper on his body.

"They're after me because I took something from their employer and they want her back," he said, "They took you because I wouldn't tell them where I hid her."

"Nothing you're saying makes any sense," Shizuru said, "Who is their employer, who is 'her' and how are you taking this so calmly?"

It didn't make any sense because no normal person reacted like he was reacting. This stuff only happened in the cheesy action movies her brother watched.

The kid was hung with chains by his wrists up on a wall covered in blood that definitely wasn't corn syrup and red dye and she had been kidnapped! She felt the need to reiterate that point only because it still felt like she was in some bad dream, if only she'd wake up now.

And the whole time she was processing this, Hiei appeared, if not calm then certainly not panicked like she was.

'No normal person reacts like this.'

Shizuru froze. She forced herself to look, actually look, at the person in front of her.

'No normal person...'

"Who are you?"

And then he said three words that made even less sense than all the others he'd said to her.

"I'm a demon."

Shizuru felt fury wash over her then, "What? What the hell does that mean? We're locked in some bastard's tower about to be tortured and you want to bring up some mythical fairytale crap?"

She saw through a haze of anger as Hiei's eyes close and he sighed.

"There isn't really any way to show you at the moment," Hiei told her bluntly.

"Bullshit. How can you make a crazy statement like that and then not back it up?" Shizuru cursed, tugging at her ropes as she jerked forwards to glare at him, stating, "I am not in the mood to play around right now."

Hiei glared back, "Remember those papers you were asking about earlier? They're wards meant to contain my power, otherwise I'd gladly show you proof and then get us the hell out of here."

"Aren't you supposed to have pointed ears or a tail or horns or green skin or something? You don't look very demon like."

Shizuru glowered when her accusation just made him bark out a short laugh, "what?"

Hiei shook his head at the irony, small smile still in place, "aren't you supposed to be a psychic? My existence isn't that farfetched."

He smirked at her irritated look, continuing with, "it doesn't really matter whether you believe me or not. Neither of us are getting out of here alive unless you get out of those ropes off of yourself and these papers off of me."

Shizuru was immediately reminded of their little remaining time and decided her questions of his sanity could wait until after they'd escaped.

Although, "as much as that sounds like a good plan to me, does it even matter if we make it out of here, somehow? I mean those guys found me in the middle of some random park after I'd been running away for an entire day. I didn't even know where the hell I was! If they could find me then- and found you, now that I think about it- who's to say we're not going to be picked up a few days from now and shoved right back in this cell?"

Shizuru was hoping for a better scenario than the one she'd just proposed but she couldn't think of anywhere they could go that those two wouldn't eventually track them too.

Hiei seemed to be thinking along the same lines because he wasn't looking very reassuring. Not that he'd ever looked very reassuring in the time that she'd known him.

"You're probably right about any escape attempts being futile," he finally said, shrugging, "but I'd like to delay our inevitable torture for as long as possible. Or do you want to stay and find out first hand how talented the Toguros are?"

She grimaced and started twisting her arms in the ropes, conceding his point. "I'll take your word for it, kid. But the second we get more time you're spilling everything."

Hiei nodded and started his own grueling task of tearing off the new wards while Shizuru tried to ignore the new bloodstains blooming into appearance.

\--------------

"How close are we, Botan?" Kurama asked as he cut through another one of the many weak demon guards that'd come to confront their group.

"About 10 miles away if we keep at this path and don't take any detours!" Botan called out from the sidelines over the sounds of the battle. She'd taken her trusty bat with her- packed away in her pocket dimension along with her oar- but the boy's looked like they were enjoying themselves so she let them have at it.

"10 miles of these pushovers? That's not gonna take very long. Sure as hell breaks up what could have been a sucky boring hike." Yusuke grinned, punching out the nearest demon. He was tired, sure. But the groups they kept running into were the most fun he'd had all week.

And Yusuke really liked not having to pull his punches.

They finished when Kurama tripped the last demon with a whip around the ankle into Kuwabara's waiting sword, earning a snicker from Yusuke, who was a complete sucker for slapstick comedy.

Kurama looked up then, noticing a camera in the trees, "I think we've caught their attention now, wouldn't you say?"

Yusuke blinked up at the camera before tossing it a grim smirk, "well, good. We wouldn't want to be rude and show up unannounced."

They picked their way around the scattered bodies, advancing further into the woods.

\---------------

"What the hell is this?" The fat jowls on Tarukane's face jiggled with the force of his yelling.

"First you can't find me the Koorime, then apparently the torture you guys are supposed to be known for is useless in getting her whereabouts, and now your men can't even handle a bunch of school kids? What am I paying you shmucks for, huh?" Tarukane's voice reached un-heretofore pitch and the veins on his forehead pulsed with his spiking blood pressure.

The younger Toguro remained unmoved, only pushing his sunglasses higher on the bridge of his nose. The Elder Toguro frowned in annoyance but left the convincing to the other.

"I assure you, the men I picked are the best available. Those children must have extraordinary power to make it past them." Toguro murmured, almost to himself rather than Tarukane.

"Well, extraordinary power is what I'm paying you for." Tarukane growled out.

"You needn't worry." Toguro said, voice low and dangerous.

"You keep saying that but I'm having a real hard time believing the hype when I haven't seen it," Tarukane said.

Toguro smirked, "Oh? Then what do you suggest?"

"Come with me. We'll see if you can prove your stuff," Tarukane said, motioning for them to follow and then giving one of his staff an offhanded order to triple security on the south side of the property.

The Toguros shrugged and followed along.

The expansive, opulent mansion seemed almost obscene to be the dwelling of only one man. The hallways they traveled through were sound proofed and their footsteps muffled by the plush carpet. They finally arrived at a door that Tarukane opened to reveal a winding stairway, devoid of the decoration the rest of the mansion was covered in.

The stairs ended and opened up to a long room containing what could only be described as a room full of nightmares. Though if the Toguros were shocked by any of it they didn't show anything in their expressions.

Tarukane grinned at his collection of monsters, turning to the brothers with a prideful sneer on his face and said, "well? How do you like them? I've had some time to collect these apparitions on the black market over the years."

He walked over to one of the larger cells holding a chimera-like creature within its electric and warded walls and said, "this here is Helen. Used to be a human girl before they turned her into this beast."

Toguro frowned at the creature as she paced her cell, watching, as she would occasionally reach out to test the walls only to get shocked.

Tarukane gestured broadly at the cell, saying "if you can take her on then maybe I'll consider keeping you on payroll. How's that sound?"

Tarukane's expression said he didn't think Toguro would take him up on his offer and he internally grinned, thinking about the money he'd get in return for the voided contract when they failed to even step in the cage with his beast.

"Seems fair." So saying, Toguro stepped towards the cell door, removing his coat as he went and tossing it on the ground behind him.

"What?" Tarukane said, shouting in disbelief, "I didn't really mean for you to go in there with her! You're going to be torn apart, then who's going to stop the intruders, huh?"

Toguro turned to look at Tarukane, saying inexpressively, "then you shouldn't have asked."

He turned back and walked into the cell, shutting the door in the panicked Tarukane's face. Immediately the chimera turned to the intruder, letting out a shrieking roar. Her paces became less out of boredom and turned into the stalking of prey as she sized up the demon who had just entered her territory.

Toguro remained unfazed and relaxed, body loosening up as he took on a fighters pose. He spoke aloud to himself, though it was for the benefit of his audience, saying, "I believe twenty percent of my strength should do it."

Tarukane shook his head in disbelief and said, "what? Is he crazy?"

The elder Toguro smirked at the panicking man before returning to watching his brother.

Toguro ignored Tarukane's rhetorical questions and clenched his fists, widening his stance as he gathered energy. Suddenly the muscles on his upper body bulged and grew, adding even more height onto the already massive man. The air seemed to crackle with electricity and energy coming off of the demon, causing the chimera to stop moving entirely as her senses registered the threat.

Finally, Toguro reached his twenty percent and raised his fist in the chimera's direction. A calm command from him had the creature charging his way, clawed paws stretched for his neck. Then, a powerful leap took the chimera within touching distance of Toguro and it was all over in a spray of blood that coated the glass walls.

Toguro lowered his fist, bringing his other hand up to adjust his sunglasses as he looked down and said, "I'm sorry you had to die in such a cruel way by my hand. I hope you are at peace now."

Tarukane gaped at the carnage, the body of his chimera split in two on the floor of her cell. He shook himself and laughed, saying, "hah! Kills her and says he sorry, get a load of this guy, eh? I like it."

He turned and grinned at his secretary, who'd been standing off to the side awaiting further orders.

"Sakashta, get the Black Black club on the line, tell them I've got a wager to make!"

Sakashta gulped audibly, saying, "the Black Black Club? Sir, are you sure?"

Tarukane paid him little attention, already moving for the stairs, "yeah, nobody but me knows the Toguros' true strength. I can use this. Those intruders are going to come in handy after all."

The crime lord turned to look at the Toguros and said, "oh, and you two'd better make this quick. I want you back to finding my ice apparition before the day is done."

He didn't wait for a response and continued climbing the stairs.

The elder Toguro tsk'd, sneering in disgust at their employer, and muttered under his breath, "more delays."

The younger nodded in silent agreement and followed up the stairs.

\--------------

Botan dusted her jacket off of any remaining spider webs and stared at the body of the latest obstacle to try and keep them from the mansion. The twisted spider-woman lay with a hole in her abdomen, staining the ground purple with her rapidly draining blood. She cringed at the awful smell and skirted around the body, gesturing for the boys to follow after her.

A few miles later and the trees began thinning out.

"Well, it looks like we're almost there. Why don't you boys go on ahead and I'll take a peek on my oar?" Botan said pulling her oar out of its pocket dimension.

"Sure, we got this." Yusuke said, already moving forward.

"Be careful, Botan." Kuwabara called out as she took to the air before he walked after Yusuke.

Kurama followed, giving Botan a short wave and then focusing back on the path ahead.

The fox noticed the sudden lack of enemies in the vicinity only moments before the forest erupted in flames.

'Must have been a trip wire or pressure sensitive explosive set up around the perimeter!'

He instinctively wrapped himself in a protective bubble of energy just as the blaze reached his feet. Kurama felt his heart drop when he remembered the other two.

'Yusuke. Kuwabara!'

A quick scan calmed his racing pulse when he noticed the blue spirit energy beating back the fire surrounding the boys.

"Holy crap, that was close!" Kuwabara said, holding a hand to his chest and gulping at the heat just outside the shield.

"I'd say this little welcome gift means we're right on their doorstep," Yusuke said, grinning at his friends.

"Well, it's only polite to knock and let them know we're here," Kurama responded blithely, beginning to walk again.

Kuwabara and Yusuke smirked as they emerged from the burning forest through the gate of the compound.

They glanced up and watched as Botan spiraled down from the sky. She landed in front of them, laughing with clear relief, and cheered, "you all had me worried for a bit, there. But I knew my boys couldn't be stopped by some measly explosion!"

She turned to face the mansion doors brow furrowed in consternation and then put her oar away, stating, "well, we made it. No putting it off now."

"Into the belly of the beast," Kurama remarked wryly.

As the four entered the mansion, multiple cameras zoomed in to focus on them.

\-------------

Sakyo smiled internally as he watched his plan wall neatly into place. Sure, the missing Koorime had initially thrown a wrench into things, but everything was running smoothly now and Tarukane was playing his part marvelously. Really, just getting the man to hire the Toguros was all that was needed. The rest of the details were just accessories.

Tarukane had called Sakyo and the rest of the Black Black Club members to make what should have been a smart bet, if Sakyo hadn't rigged it from the start. The man's explanation of the stakes had sent the others laughing when they saw the competition consisted of a bunch of teenagers and a fairy girl, not a very formidable looking group.

Sakyo let a placid smile cross his face as he put his bet on the humans when they came upon their first challenge. The children wiped out the weak apparitions in short order, leaving disgusted sneers on the corrupt businessmen's faces as they grumbled over their losses to Sakyo.

The intruders made it through the minefield at the gate of the complex and Tarukane unveiled his next challenge. The Triad. Three demons who were beginning to get some recognition in the criminal underworld. Sakyo let the others make their bets before raising the stakes again. He could practically feel Tarukane's rage through the screen as he failed to make the reasonable choice and pick the demons.

Sakyo turned his smile towards the Toguros and felt the cold glee that was so rare nowadays well up inside him.

He sat back in his chair to watch the puppet show unfold before his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) OK, this is the last chapter for this fic for a bit. The next thing that's going to be updated is a one-shot I promised my 100th reviewer and then the other fics I have on backlog.
> 
> Also, I'm gonna have to say this just to forewarn everyone, but this story will likely be slash between Hiei and Yusuke (honestly this still isn't 100% set in stone, only because I myself don't know exactly which twists I'm going to make with this fic. Even the degree to which the romance will occur is something I'm uncertain of).
> 
> I don't know how everything will play out and initially I wasn't too sure about whether I should include any romance at all (I might even do alternate endings, we'll see lol). However, one of my main reasons for writing yyh fanfiction is to see the things I've been looking for in other fics on this site/others, but couldn't find/ couldn't find enough of. And while there's an abundance of OC pairings, Hiei/Kurama, and Yusuke/Keiko fics, there's a sad lack of Yusuke/Hiei and that happens to be my personal favorite, even if I enjoy other pairings in the fandom. That said it's not going to happen immediately. Both Hiei and Yusuke's personalities have shown them to be crap with emotions and they usually take outside intervention before getting over their hardheaded-ness.
> 
> If that's not your cup of tea/coffee/Starbucks drink of choice, I don't mind if you stop reading this fic, but I can tell you that I'm always going to try my best to keep them in character, without turning this into a cheesy yaoi/romance fic. If you can stomach that, then carry on reading :}


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) What's it been, another two years? The crickets aren't even chirping anymore, they died sometime in year one ahahah
> 
> So this chapter was pretty hard to start (actually writing the whole thing has been a pain, idk what it is about this chapter in particular that has been impossible) and I procrastinated a ton on it but that's nothing new so what can you do, amirite?
> 
> Also, fic recommendations are still a thing I am always interested in! If you've got some cool fics you think are worth reading (particularly yyh but I'm open to any fic you think is good) please send them my way :D
> 
> There's probably a few continuity errors and the like as I'm the worst with small details and kinda just make them up as I go, having not memorized the episodes in any way shape or form haha
> 
> On that note, please R&R! I love talking about yyh with other fans because it helps me stay psyched about the show (like, I love yyh more than many things but it's hard to stay focused on one thing for too long without getting sidetracked if there's nothing fueling the excitement ya know?). And I'm on Tumblr as OrchidOwl so hit me up there to talk yyh or whatever new fandom I'm/you're currently obsessing over (annnd please rec me any good yyh accounts you may know on there, I'm following far too few of them lol).
> 
> On with the chapter! Here's to hoping it won't take another two years for the next!

"At least they didn't lock the doors on us," Botan said, finger on her chin as she cast a curious gaze around the mansion's foyer.

"I wouldn't have felt too bad busting this guy's doors down if they had locked them," Kuwabara responded, shooting a disdainful look back at said doors.

"I suppose there's no point in subtlety when they already know you're here," Kurama remarked. Of course, he'd always been a fan of the silent approach but there was something to be said for grand entrances and blowing in the doors of your enemy's fortress was a surefire way to make a statement.

"Are you saying we missed a perfect chance to cause property damage? 'Cus I'm gonna be honest, I feel like we should be knocking holes in the walls just on principle," Yusuke said.

The banter flowed with a natural ease, even though two of their group had only just met. It somehow seemed as though they'd been together far longer, been through more together to craft them into this team that, for all intents and purposes, trusted each other implicitly. Later, Kurama would look back on this and have a moment of panic because he'd never before trusted others as quickly as he had Yusuke and Kuwabara, and even Botan, for as much as he disliked Spirit World.

The fox would feel a stab of guilt then, as it had taken him years to come to trust his own human mother in such a way.

But for now, the realization yet to hit him, Kurama remained focused on the task at hand.

The group had wandered past the foyer and into the nearest corridor, pausing to take stock of their relative position and survey the area. They'd made it in but the empty halls and padded, carpet-lined floors that dampened sounds made it seem like stepping into a mausoleum.

"It's certainly a gaudy style our crime lord has gone with here," Kurama commented. As a fellow ex-crime lord (bandit king, crime lord, these words become interchangeable after a certain point) he felt it was a bit insulting to spend such accrued stolen wealth on such an ugly base.

"Yeah, I would have gone with less pastels," Yusuke added, though he wasn't paying much attention to the conversation.

Kuwabara was about to input his opinion on Yusuke knowing anything about pastels and Botan was about to add how cute it was that he'd make such a happy homemaker for Keiko when their enemy arrived.

"Hello, boys~"

"Hello," Kuwabara said, manners taking over to provide the automatic response.

Yusuke and Kurama side-eyed him, though Kurama's was an expression of amusement and Yusuke's could be summed up by: seriously?

And Botan let out an indignant sound at being grouped in with "boys", or worse yet, not even acknowledged!

"Oh goody, I was hoping someone would come along and give us the guided tour," Yusuke said, the first to shake out of his thoughts at the pretty blue-haired demon's arrival.

"I am Miyuki, and I'm afraid I won't be escorting you anywhere. Now, fight me, unless you're afraid of losing to a woman!"

"Hah, I ain't afraid of hitting a lady. Bring it," came Yusuke's elegant response.

Kurama took the chance, while Yusuke faces off against their new opponent, to let his thoughts wander again. This would probably be the only chance for him to deliberate before they made it to the real challenge. Kuwabara was quite adamant that he would not be fighting a woman and Kurama could tell their help wasn't needed.

Although he would let someone else tell Kuwabara that he would have been perfectly fine fighting this opponent.

He is beginning to see an odd pattern to these bodyguards employed by Tarukane. It made sense that the first few batches of demons would be weak, likely only used to ward off humans and the occasional mercenary. But why, after witnessing the ease at which they had been wiped out, would he not send for the Toguro's immediately?

And he didn't like the way the hallway camera's followed their movements. They were being tracked everywhere they went in this place.

Kurama narrowed his eyes at the cameras. If he'd been by alone he might have disabled them and tried to cover his steps. Even if his presence were already known, not being able to see where his exact position was would work in his favor. However, Kurama sighed internally, casting a glance at his loud teammates, as much as he could conceal himself, he'd never be able to hide Yusuke and Kuwabara, and Botan was hardly a master of stealth as they'd witnessed in the forest.

He spared a brief thought on how training them in being quiet would go but gave it up just as fast. A thousand years old he may be, but he definitely didn't have the patience for that.

Hiei was teaching Yusuke and Kuwabara how to fight. Not nearly as difficult as teaching them to be stealthy, to be sure, but an odd task nonetheless. Kurama was still trying to wrap his mind around the sudden, to him, change the younger demon had undergone.

The Hiei he'd met all those years ago shared surface traits with the current Hiei. The biting sarcasm and aloofness was par for the course and he seemed to still be impulsive in his actions. But underlying that was a remarkable calmness that had settled over Hiei. The little fire demon had been less frantic in his actions, less quick to attack others to protect himself unless it was a real threat. Less like he was clawing his way through life, just trying to survive.

Kurama would go so far as to say the Hiei of now was confident in himself and his place in the world.

Perhaps some life-changing event had happened in the five or so years since he'd seen Hiei. Something that had made him not only tolerate humans, but actually find a friend in two. Kurama just had to find out what that had been.

His time was up.

Kurama watched Yusuke kick Miyuki through a wall and was almost disappointed that he would have to put his thoughts on hold again. This little mystery he was toying with was proving to be the most entertaining thing he'd had in years.

"-And stay down," the detective ordered, crossing his arms.

Kurama joined Yusuke's side, staring down at the defeated demon.

"Urameshi, I can't believe you did that. You're not supposed to hit girls!" Kuwabara shouted when he also reached them.

"What? You can't believe I won the fight and got us closer to Hiei? Yeah, like I'm gonna be sorry for that," Yusuke shot back, sending an indignant glare at the other.

"You didn't have to be so mean about it," Kuwabara argued, waving a hand at the hole Miyuki's head had made in the wall.

"Well, I certainly wasn't going to fight her," Botan piped in. Really, Kuwabara's chivalrous nature was an excellent trait the grim reaper could admire about the boy but she hardly thought it mattered in a life or death situation like this.

"Sure, and next time I'll just let her hand me my ass and we'll see where that gets us."

"Besides," Yusuke muttered, eyes glancing down to avoid looking at Kuwabara, "our misses is actually a mister. So you know, you can calm down and get off my case."

"Er, what?"

"No way!"

Kurama blinked at Kuwabara and Botan's outburst, "I forgot you can't tell, it seemed obvious, although..."

He looked over at Yusuke, "I should have guessed based on Yusuke's, ah, inventive battle strategy and Kuwabara's objections that that was the case."

They turned back to the fallen demon before collectively deciding to move on.

Of course, after they'd established that Miyuki was down for good and reached another cross section of hallways, they reached a startling conclusion.

"Hey, does anyone know where we're actually going?"

Botan and Kuwabara turned to Yusuke with expectant looks, Yusuke looked at Botan and her compass that he'd been following, and Kurama raised a brow at all of them.

"Crap."

"Urameshi, I thought you knew where we were going!" Kuwabara shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the detective.

"Me? I was following Botan 'cus she had the stupid compass!" Yusuke shouted back, flinging his arm out to gesture widely at Botan.

"This was only a general pointer to get to the mansion, we didn't have time to pull together more precise instruments! I don't know where we're going now!" Botan panicked, jumping from foot to foot.

Kurama smiled, what even was his life anymore.

"Okay, okay, look," Yusuke growled, rubbing his head in exasperation, "We gotta find Hiei. That's the whole reason we're here. Maybe we'll even manage to snag him and run before we meet up with certain somebodies."

Kurama very much doubted that would happen and he knew the others were aware of that too. But it was nice that Yusuke was showing some optimism for once in his life.

"Well how're we supposed to find the shrimp in this place anyway?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't know, you're the psychic, remember?" Yusuke prompted. Honestly, he couldn't find his way out of a corn maze, let alone this giant ass mansion. Of course given enough time for his frustration to build and he'd probably start punching his way out of things. You know, add a few more holes to the walls around here.

"I don't think you know what psychic even means, Urameshi," Kuwabara grumbled.

"Come on, Kuwabara, you're the best shot we've got," Botan encouraged, anything to stop them from asking her which way to go. She was awful with directions!

"I don't even know how it works!" Kuwabara tried to explain. He'd only ever used it automatically when ghosts popped up around him. He'd never tried to hone it or use it on command like they seemed to be implying he did all the time.

"The most we can do is keep walking," Kurama soothed, "perhaps Kuwabara will feel something as we move. Plus, I doubt it matters which direction we choose. I suspect our enemies will make themselves known to us one way or another."

"There, you see? It's good to know someone's got my back," Kuwabara huffed, starting to walk down a random hall.

He was so glad they had Kurama on their team.

\----------

"Ok, Hiei, you've got to stop."

Shizuru winced in sympathy pain as she watched Hiei doggedly continue trying to scratch off the wards. When all she got for her efforts was a stubborn glare, she sighed and gave up trying to talk him out of it.

'Stubborn kid,' she thought halfheartedly, 'no wonder he gets along with Kazuma.'

For her own part, Shizuru had been forced to stop attempting to free herself from her own bonds after the pain became too much. Her wrists and ankles were rubbed raw at this point but she couldn't quite make herself go to the extent that Hiei was.

And, to be quite honest, she was functioning on what amounted to nothing at this point. The last time she'd eaten or slept must have been a day before and if it weren't for the constant hum of psychic distress she was feeling she probably would have passed out from exhaustion hours ago.

That was when they felt an explosion rock the foundation of the room.

Shizuru gasped, turning towards the window to try to see if she would have to worry about whether the tower they were in was about to come crumbling down or not.

She'd almost missed Hiei's expression, not that it made much of a difference to her since she couldn't read it anyway. Either way he'd definitely noticed the explosion, but, while he'd seemed surprised by it, he didn't seem confused by it like Shizuru definitely was.

'Ok, then. Let's try round two of getting answers out of him,' Shizuru thought, narrowing her eyes when Hiei relaxed in his chains.

"What was that?"

Hiei almost looked like he wasn't going to respond and Shizuru was about to start yelling if that was the case when he decided to spare his ears, answering, "if it's what I think it is, then our help has arrived."

Then he seemed to realize what he'd said and let out a curse, glaring at the direction that must have been the source of the explosion as if he could see what lay beyond them and was extremely disappointed by it.

"You don't exactly sound happy about that," Shizuru said, trying to prompt the kid into giving her more information without outright demanding it.

"Why shouldn't we be happy someone's here to bust us out?" She pried, honestly unable to understand why help wouldn't be the best damn thing in the world right now, "unless you've got a masochistic streak- which I'm honestly starting to suspect right now- and want to stay in this place?"

Hiei turned to face her again, blinking as he focused back outside of his thoughts. Then he really looked at her and cast a sharp glance back towards the window, drying blood cracking around his widening eyes as he seemed to draw a connection she couldn't see.

"Okay, and what's that look supposed to be," Shizuru snapped out.

Instead of answering that last demand, Hiei went back to the first questions, though it sounded like he was talking to himself more than responding to her demand for answers.

"This was exactly what I didn't want to happen," he said, dropping his gaze to the floor to try glaring holes into it, "our help is no help at all at this point in time. The Toguros will have no use for them and they're nowhere near strong enough to actually defeat the brothers now."

"Who is our help?" Shizuru demanded, running short on her already frayed patience.

Hiei sighed, letting his head fall back to the stone wall with a "thunk." When he finally answered, it was with a wry voice, "your brother, Yusuke, and one other, Botan, who you wouldn't know, are coming here to rescue us."

The sentence dropped like a bombshell, freezing Shizuru up as she tried to process yet another thing that made no sense.

"My baby brother, the fourteen year old kid, his delinquent friend, and some random third person, are here to fight an entire mansion full of guys with guns and actual demons?"

Hiei winced, realizing his blunt words maybe weren't the best way to break the news to her but couldn't bring himself to put in the energy to explain it more gently.

Besides, things were shot to hell at this point anyways. The Toguros in the original timeline already knew who the detective was when they finally went to rescue Yukina, having had time for their contacts to bring them the news of the Saint Beasts' defeat. Word of a new Spirit Detective was out by then and his reputation enough to have piqued the younger Toguro's attention.

As of this timeline? Yusuke had only just finished his training at Genkai's, not even having had to fight for the Artifacts of Darkness beforehand. And one victory at her tournament was not enough to garner much attention at all.

Had they even dealt with the Saint Beasts yet? Hiei couldn't remember when that case had happened besides knowing the timeline had been fast-forwarded by his rescuing of his sister early and by his subsequent kidnapping. Perhaps the Saint Beasts wouldn't even make their move on the Human World for another few months yet due to some Butterfly Effect. Hiei had no way of knowing how things were proceeding while he was trapped here.

He had no idea whether the Toguro's wouldn't just outright kill the intruders in an attempt to get Yukina's whereabouts from him once he realized they were there for his rescue. That corrupt businessman, Sakyo, certainly had no use for them at the moment.

In other words, Hiei was quickly running out of options. He wasn't even certain if Kurama had received his psychic shout. Would the fox even know what to do with the information?

Of course, now that he thought of it, he couldn't be certain Botan was even there, the only reason Spirit World had gotten involved to begin with had been Tarukane's harvesting of Yukina's tears. Without her in the mix they might not feel the need to send one of their reapers.

The bitter hope that Yusuke and Kuwabara had the smarts to stay away after Hiei had tried to warn them was dwindled to nothing. Yes, that explosion may have been some other intruders, which was... not likely

Hiei should have known better than to think those too would do the intelligent thing and stay away from the Toguros.

Still...

Too many variables and not enough facts. Hiei would have set something on fire if he could. At least that would make him feel better.

The skewed timeline, his capture instead of Yukina's, the potential lack of Spirit World involvement with Tarukane, Shizuru's presence, and finally, whether that explosion had even been the detective and the fool to his rescue or not.

His ability to sense energy patterns over distance had been severely compromised by the wards. He'd have to wait until the intruders came closer before he'd be able to tell.

All of those factors and more clouded the situation and made it impossible to plan worth a damn.

Hiei once again strongly wished Kurama had been the one to grab the damn gauntlet.

Also Shizuru looked like she wanted to claw his eyes out, the woman was seething with rage and horror about Hiei's possible premature guess about the explosion's source.

"Why would my baby brother be coming here, exactly," she hissed through a thin veneer of a pleasant smile.

Hiei thought about rolling his eyes, exasperated by the info dump and already knowing he was going to get shit for revealing Spirit World secrets to a human but he'd never been one to care about that puffed up society's rules much. And at this point what was there to lose?

"Your brother just so happens to be friends with the current Spirit Detective," Hiei started, deciding he'd rather spare his ears than try making up something to keep Shizuru more in the dark.

He gave her the brief outline of the three worlds and Yusuke's roll in it, not saying anything about how he'd had a hand in resurrecting the detective.

If the detective wanted to blab about his miraculous return to the living and the methods that were used then Hiei would just have to skewer him.

Kurama especially must never know, Hiei determined. The teasing that that damn fox would put him through would be endless. Hiei would have to threaten the ferry girl since she'd most certainly been a witness but that wouldn't be a problem, as the first timeline had shown.

"And Kazuma just happened to get involved with all this," Shizuru growled out, unconsciously twisting in her bonds as if imagining wrapping her hands around someone's- probably his- throat.

"Kuwabara nearly got his fool head removed fighting a demon far beyond his level, despite both my and the detective's warnings, at the psychic Genkai's tournament six months ago," Hiei scoffed at the memory, not caring at this point about throwing even more fuel to the fire that was Shizuru's anger.

Shizuru narrowed her eyes and Hiei waited for the next accusatory question she'd throw his way.

"Yeah, that does sound like Kazuma," she huffed out instead, anger deflating and leaving her to slouch heavily back into the chair.

Hiei hid a commiserating grin, feeling wry amusement at the exasperation anyone who spent time with Kuwabara must at some point feel.

Well, Hiei frowned, Yukina never seemed to have that problem with the fool but the less said about that relationship the better, in his mind.

A sigh from Shizuru brought his attention out of that particular avenue and back to the present.

"So seeing as I can't dislocate my thumb or brute force these ropes off, any chance you might have a plan B to get us out of here?" Shizuru grumbled, wincing as she tried to tug at her bonds.

"Such as?" Hiei said, his tone dry as he realized most of his plans involved brute force and impulse.

"Like, these Toguros are mercenaries right?" Shizuru asked, more to herself as she tried to think out loud, "is there anything we can bargain with them? Do they have something besides money they want?"

Hiei snorted at the thought, "it doesn't matter what they want. Their current leash holder cares for nothing other than his own entertainment and we're not even pawns in his game."

"As for the Toguros themselves," Hiei said, contempt making his mouth curl in distaste, "one is a rabid dog and the other-"

Hiei stopped, brow furrowing as he turned that sentence in his head.

Shizuru made as if to prompt him into finishing what he was saying and Hiei shook his head, "I may have our plan B. Let me think about this."

He stared at the floor but his mind was elsewhere, considering the potential insanity he was piecing together.

The future was up in the air at this point and his plan may not even be a plan at all.

Still, Hiei sighed inwardly to stifle the building tension he was feeling. There was nothing he could do until the Toguros showed themselves again.

He would need his energy, at the moment all of which was going into healing the self-inflicted wounds he'd incurred.

"I suggest you find what rest you can," Hiei stated before closing his eyes and dropping his head forward, getting as comfortable as his incredibly uncomfortable position would allow.

"Yeah, like I could sleep in a place like this," Shizuru grumbled, glaring at the demon.

But, psychic nerves practically numbed at this point and her body desperately crying out for sleep, Shizuru made her own pathetic adjustments in the chair and tried for the rest she was sure would be impossible to find.

Hiei noted that Shizuru, despite her complaints, had finally passed into exhausted slumber a few moments later before he let himself slip into the light doze all denizens of the Demon World were able to attain in moments.

His last thought was that he'd be ready when the Toguros came back. Then, he could foolishly bargain with the one piece he had to play with.

In another section of the mansion, a second Demon Triad member fell to Team Urameshi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N)
> 
> And that's ch. 19 folks! I've got a fun little plot twist coming up in the next chapter that should spin this into some new AU territory, although the effects won't be felt for further in the story so we'll see how that goes :]
> 
> I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year so at the least you guys will get another couple chapters out before my inevitable dropping off the map because I may not be consistent in many things but in my procrastinating, I am...


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